AI Is Less Regulated Than Milk

Microsoft's president dropped a line this week that should probably be printed on every AI stock prospectus: artificial intelligence is less regulated than milk. Not as regulated. Less. We've apparently built an entire asset class around technology that has fewer rules than dairy products. The S&P is hovering near records while AI agents are reportedly going rogue and regional police are dropping Palantir like a bad habit. Cool, cool, cool.

The world's hottest AI stock market has gone cold, per Business Insider, yet family offices are still FOMOing into tech because apparently watching from the sidelines hurts more than buying at the top. The logic is flawless. Meanwhile, in the physical realm where regulations actually exist, robots are now delivering blood and bone marrow at a top-10 hospital. That's genuinely useful, which means it'll get approximately 1% of the hype that chatbot wrappers receive.

Oil markets are having their own moment. Trump said something, tanker rates are surging due to longer voyages and rising attacks, and the center of gravity is moving east. When your commodity needs to take the long way around because of geopolitical spice, that's called a risk premium. When your tech stack can autonomously decide to ignore its guardrails, that's called innovation. The difference is one of these things has a futures market that makes sense.

Markets are little changed, which is somehow the headline when we're near all-time highs and literally everything from AI regulation to oil shipping routes is in flux. Morningstar has 33 undervalued stocks for you, which is a fun thought experiment when nobody can agree on what anything is actually worth anymore. Happy Columbus Day to those who observe—banks, USPS, and the stock market have thoughts on that.