Given that the go-to linear-algebra libraries for the past N decades (BLAS, Linpack, etc.) are Fortran, I'd suspect that neural-network people would be rather okay with it, esp. if it could be driven with a Python wrapper (which is how most people use BLAS and Linpack today).
BASIC is roughly to Fortran what Rust is to C++: its creators set out to design a "better Fortran", and realized that the limitations and complexities necessitated creating a whole new language.
