Never ascribe to malice what can be explained by incompetence.

While I wouldn't put it past people like Sam Altman to try to cover up failure... there's way too many people involved in this entire industry. Two can keep a secret, if one is dead. It would be the most competently executed conspiracy in history.

A screenshot of some text is not particularly convincing. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Other notes:

Machine learning algorithms are not really new. They are an outgrowth of optimization mathematics and multi-dimensional analysis. A lot of very smart people with advanced degrees have been working in various aspects of this field for almost a century at this point (going back at least as far as Alan Turing).

It's true that these algorithms are not capable of actual reasoning, but they are not "fake". There's a lot of marketing hype around the current generation of "artificial intelligence", but it's not really any more of a lie than any other product marketing. "Caveat emptor" and all that.

It's definitely a mistake to think of the current generation of machine learning as anything more than very capable text prediction algorithms. But... people buying into marketing hype does not make a conspiracy. It's pretty normal, especially if you've paid any attention to how venture capitalists behave. Trend chasing is par for the course, as is spending a lot of money to amplify the trend, so that other people will throw their money in.