This sounds like some next-level rationalization to me. You can justify anything by theorizing that somebody else will do the same-thing-but-even-worse:

"If we don't employ child labour, somebody else will! It should be us, so we can at least make sure our child-slaves get fed once a day!"

The fact of the matter is that Google has rare talent in AI. There isn't another company with their kind of expertise waiting in line behind them, and even if there were, sometimes you should keep your hands clean.