Google today relaunched its Google Ideas think tank as Jigsaw, a technology incubator, and the new venture has several projects aimed squarely at some of banking’s thorniest issues.
Officially, Jigsaw’s “mission is to use technology to tackle the toughest geopolitical challenges.” But several of those “challenges” confound financial services.
For example, Project Shield is intended to “harness Google’s computing infrastructure to protect independent voices from DDoS attacks” and Password Alert “helps protect against phishing.” In a note announcing the relaunch, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent, said Jigsaw had other initiatives aimed at countering money laundering. Schmidt also wrote:
As a technology incubator, Jigsaw will be investing in and building technology to expand access to information for the world’s most vulnerable populations and to defend against the world’s most challenging security threats.
Check out Jigsaw’s “Digital Attack Map” here. Alphabet [ticker: GOOG] has a market capitalization of about $502 billion.