Tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) makes no real secret about its plans for artificial intelligence (AI), looking to put it in play in as many places as possible. But it recently offered a warning about one of those potential uses with agentic AI, warning users that Windows 11 might actually install malware on your system. The warning made some investors think twice, and shares slipped fractionally in Tuesday afternoon’s trading.
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Windows 11 will soon offer agentic AI support, reports note, and with that, Microsoft is already sounding an alarm. In fact, it is encouraging users not to use this feature without a key point: understanding the potential risks. The agentic AI feature will actually be off by default, reports note, because the risks are potentially quite serious.
Microsoft warns that users should “…only enable this feature if you understand the security implications.” Specifically, Microsoft warned about “novel security risks,” including “…cross-prompt injection (XPIA), where malicious content embedded in UI elements or documents can override agent instructions, leading to unintended actions like data exfiltration or malware installation.” Thus, the era of agentic operating systems is here, and causing a slew of potential problems, the extent of which will be unknown until the problems actually start happening.
“Absolutely Core”
Meanwhile, the future of Xbox continues to look a bit tenuous as Xbox President Sarah Bond recently offered some insight. Bond declared, “Hardware is absolutely core to everything we do at Xbox. Our most valuable players love the hardware experience.”
With Xbox’s 25th anniversary coming up, this sets the stage for major announcements about its future, easily framed under the heading of “the next 25 years.” And with ongoing reports suggesting that Microsoft’s path forward involves expanding outward to include PC gaming—which means most games thanks to porting—the next 25 years will be very strange indeed.
Is Microsoft a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 35 Buys assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 21.47% rally in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $632.07 per share implies 28.44% upside potential.
