IBM CEO Calls for AI Regulation That Protects Innovation  

In a May 5 interview with Fox Business, IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna warned that federal regulators need to find what he called the “Goldilocks” middle ground on AI oversight. Too much regulation, he argued, stifles the innovation that keeps the U.S. competitive. Too little, and the risks go unchecked.

Krishna said that existing regulatory frameworks in industries like banking, healthcare, and telecom already apply to AI use cases within those sectors. That means a new, sweeping AI-specific rulebook may not be necessary. What does matter, he said, is how fast the government acts when it reviews AI systems for national security concerns.

“As long as they’re going to do their judgment quite quickly within a few days or a few weeks, I think that this serves everybody very well,” Krishna told Fox Business. “If it turns into a bloated bureaucracy, that would not be so good for us to win the AI race.”

The comments come as the U.S. government is actively reviewing AI models from major tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, for potential national security risks. Krishna did not oppose that scrutiny. His concern is speed. If government reviews drag on for months or years, he said, competitors abroad will move faster and capture the market.

Krishna also pushed back against the idea that AI is fundamentally different from other technologies that regulators have handled before. He said the core question has always been the same: Is the technology being used responsibly within a given industry? Regulators already know how to answer that question in finance and healthcare. The same logic, he argued, should apply to AI.

On the business side, Krishna used the Fox Business interview to highlight concrete results from IBM’s AI work. He pointed to Nestle as a key example. According to an IBM press release, the food giant achieved 83% cost savings and a 30x improvement in price performance using IBM’s data systems. He also referenced a milestone from Quantum Leap, an IBM partner working on AI-assisted drug development, though he did not provide specifics.

IBM’s stock has taken a hit recently, falling 13% following headlines about competition from AI companies including Anthropic. Krishna addressed that directly, telling investors not to read too much into short-term market swings. He said IBM’s underlying business model, which he called the “AI Operating Model,” remains strong, and that revenue growth and market share gains will tell the real story over time.

“Whenever there’s an exciting new technology that is going to unlock trillions in new revenue, trillions of productivity, even more in terms of potential revenue, people are going to come after it,” he told Fox Business. He added that the coming months will separate companies delivering real AI value from those that are not, and that IBM intends to be among the former.

The regulatory debate Krishna entered is far from settled. Congress has yet to pass any comprehensive federal AI legislation, and the current administration has taken a largely deregulatory posture on emerging tech. How federal agencies handle AI security reviews in the months ahead could shape both the pace of AI deployment and the competitive standing of American tech companies globally.