Ain’t No Drama Like AI Industry Drama

Welcome to the Tech Brew ride home for Thursday, 01/15/2026. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, apparently, there ain't no drama like AI industry drama proven once again by some high profile defections from Thinking Machine Labs. Grok says it's cleaned up its act. TSMC is winning thanks to AI. More price rises from Spotify and why is Ireland missing out on the AI data center boom? Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Attackers don't need exploits when they can use your allowed tools against you. That's why ThreatLocker enforces default deny at execution stopping unknown software scripts and ransomware the moment it tries to run. No signatures, no guesswork, just control. ThreatLocker takes zero trust from theory to practice by blocking any unauthorized application or behavior from ever running in the first place. Generative AI has lowered the barrier to malware creation, so ThreatLocker prevents AI generated polymorphic and and file less attacks by shutting down unknown behavior automatically even if it's never been seen in the wild. ThreatLocker gives you tight control without the noise, meaning fewer alerts and a cleaner, predictable operational posture. Learn more at threatlocker.com/techbrewridehome. That's threatlocker.com/techbrewridehome. Now there is always drama in the tech industry. You've got huge egos, rivalries, grudges. But I have to say, the AI industry pretty much takes the cake when it comes to drama. I mean, remember the whole Sam Altman almost being defenestrated from OpenAI thing? Well, grok this new one. Word leaked out that Mira Mirati, she formerly of OpenAI and the Sam Altman succession drama, her new startup, Thinking Machines Lab, has parted ways with its CTO, Barrett Zoth, with Soumit Chantala now set to take over that role. Sources say the termination of Zoff was due to, quote, unethical conduct. Later, Fiji Simo of OpenAI tweeted that Zoff and Luke Metz and Sam Schoenholtz have returned to OpenAI from Thinking Machines Lab and, quote, this has been in the works for several weeks. What could possibly be going on here? Well, here's Wired, quote, two narratives are already forming about what prompted the departures. The news was first reported on x by technology reporter Kylie Robison, who wrote that Zoff was fired for, quote, unethical conduct. A source close to Thinking Machines alleged that Zoff had shared confidential company information with competitors. Wired was unable to verify this information with Zoff who did not immediately respond to Wired's request for comment. According to the memo from CMO, Zoff told Thinking Machines CEO Miramarati on Monday he was considering leaving. He was then fired on Wednesday. Simo went on to write that OpenAI doesn't share the same concerns about Zoff as Mirati. The personnel shakeup is a major win for OpenAI, which recently lost its VP of research, Jerry Torek. A third Thinking Machines staffer, Sam Schoenholtz, is also rejoining OpenAI per the company's announcement. The departures are a blow to Thinking Machines, which also lost another cofounder, Andrew Tullock, in November when he …