“People deserve to know systems were built against criteria that hold up to scrutiny,” said Craig Shank, Executive Director, Appia Foundation.
The Linux Foundation announced the formation of the Appia Foundation under the Joint Development Foundation (JDF) to establish modular open source specifications and standardized conformity assessment frameworks across the global AI value chain.
The Appia Foundation delivers an open connecting layer by building on international standards and established frameworks to develop publicly available global specifications. The specifications are organized across a Requirements and Guidance layer and an Assessment Enablement layer. These specifications provide the testing criteria, evaluation guidelines, and component typologies needed to effectively assess AI models, systems, applications, and processes.
Organizations reuse existing, modular compliance evidence from upstream suppliers instead of assessing entire systems from scratch. This seamless transfer of technical data reduces regulatory friction across the value chain while maintaining clear boundaries of accountability.
Initial members of the Appia Foundation include Arm, Armilla AI, Ericsson, Google, Mastercard, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electric, Naaia, Nemko, Omron, OpenAI, Schneider Electric and Siemens.
“As international standards and legal frameworks become more established, global organizations need a consistent, practical way to verify that AI systems conform to new expectations,” said Jim Zemlin, CEO of the Linux Foundation.
“The Appia Foundation was formed to do that work: creating publicly available specifications that organizations across the AI value chain use to demonstrate their systems meet those criteria. By establishing this open framework, we are building the accountability layer required to scale safe and trusted AI across major industries,” said Craig Shank, Executive Director of the Appia Foundation.
