I am hacker and a geek, but nowadays I am more and more interested in marketing. I am wondering in what part the existence of such a lab and the emphasis in the

I am hacker and a geek, but nowadays I am more and more interested in marketing. I am wondering in what part the existence of such a lab and the emphasis in their communication on A.I. is a conscious marketing effort. I can imagine that even if nothing from that lab will make direct profit for them, and even if their search engine will never be even close to strong A.I. they can communicate an excellent marketing message: when you use Google you use strong A.I. (or at least almost). If we think about it this way the secretiveness can also make the story more exciting from a marketing perspective. Also if this is their main motivation then they will create more 'spectacular' prototypes rather than just honestly trying to solve deep problems.