What about it sounds like a moonshot? It's using an existing Google open source project and is looking to use it for an artistic purpose along with building a community. Honestly it sounds like a 20% project from a couple of people on the TensorFlow project. Almost 0 cost.
Plus potential PR value for Google if something meaningful comes out, the press loves AI stories like this. It feels like the effort invested in AlphaGo was at least partially because of marketing, establishing Google as a leader in AI.
This will also help attract young researchers to Tensorflow, so a low cost win for them.
