"Misuse" of koans has long history.

After Zen master Yuanwu's Blue Cliff Records - collection of 100 classical koans with his commentary verses - started to spread around, his successor Dahui noticed how monks and laypeople treated the collection as intellectual and artistic work (Yuanwu Keqin wrote and spoke very beautifully, so they do have artistic value) and burned all copies he could find.

The original use of koan is to be meditation aid (huatou-method, koan practice) not subject of philosophical inquiry.

ps. The original MIT AI lab koans are more clever than these ESR ones. http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/dae/notes/ai-koans