So the team could largely be newbies to AI (with extremely good fundamental knowledge/skill), rather than folks we've all heard of from the AI scene.
Jim Simmons that recently passed away did exactly this in finance decades ago. He didn't build a team of the brightest minds in finance.
He hired brilliant people that specifically did not work in finance. I think he even mentioned that astronomy was one of his favorite areas to hire from for finance.
I am sure we highly underestimate the indoctrination against new ideas that anyone at the top of a field has been subject to.
Humans love to turn everything into a high school prom king/queen popularity election though even when it is obvious the best people for the job didn't even go to the prom.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that AI development appears to be heading the same way.