I think this may be a Xerox Alto, IBM PC, or Sun Java moment. In the short term I can see a clear benefit to Google for this. They want to get machine-learning into more aspects of the Android mobile experience, Android customers are justifiably paranoid of sending things like every keystroke on the device back to Google's cloud, and so this gives them a privacy-acceptable way to deliver the features that will make them more competitive in a new market. Remember that the vast majority of Google employees honestly want to do what's best for the user, not what preserves Google's monopoly.