As sad as I think this reasoning is, I think it's true. Google wanted someone to shield them from scrutiny with some hand wavy papers, making them feel good about what they are doing (disrupting the market!11!1!), just as pharma pays studies to prove what they want. Those researched probably just didn't get the implicit agreement or requirement, that Google already did everything right and well. And obviously Google isn't racist or biased, and if they are, they are doing everything they can to combat that /s.