Earlier today, we heard about a lawsuit taking aim at tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) over a death seemingly prompted by a chatbot online. As it turns out, this lawsuit is the tip of a profoundly disturbing iceberg, as several states’ Attorneys General are taking aim at Microsoft, along with other AI makers, to rein in “delusional outputs.” Investors were oddly placid about the whole thing, as Microsoft shares gained fractionally in Thursday afternoon’s trading.
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Reports suggest that “…dozens of AGs from U.S. states and territories with the National Association of Attorneys General” all signed the letter calling for a variety of AI firms to “…implement a variety of new internal safeguards to protect their users.” The safeguards in question range from the comparatively simple to the perplexing, including a requirement to enlist third parties to “…evaluate systems pre-release without retaliation and to publish their findings without prior approval from the company.”
The problem here, of course, is that this letter is likely about to be rendered moot as the Trump administration prepares an executive order establishing a “one rule” system that may ultimately override state laws in connection with AI development. President Trump noted, “You can’t expect a company to get 50 approvals every time they want to do something. THAT WILL NEVER WORK!”
Get Your Pip-Boy Now
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Xbox will be celebrating the imminent release of the second season of the Fallout television series by releasing a special controller with a familiar aesthetic: the Pip-Boy wrist-mounted computer system from the game series. Sadly, the controllers themselves are not wrist-mounted, but rather are standard Xbox controllers with a Pip-Boy aesthetic.
The controllers feature Vault Boy in a green CRT-esque color scheme with what appear to be Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS) indicators around him. The controllers also include metallic D-pads and triggers. Prices range from $82.97 for the standard wireless edition to $179.07 for the customizable Elite version.
Is Microsoft a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 32 Buys and two Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 6.45% rally in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $632.22 per share implies 30.87% upside potential.
