The Appia Foundation launched under the Linux Foundation with 13 initial members, including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Arm, Mastercard, Schneider Electric, and Siemens.

The Linux Foundation launched the Appia Foundation, an industry-backed group created to help companies and governments verify whether AI systems meet trust, safety, and compliance requirements.

The foundation formed because AI is moving faster than the systems used to assess it. Companies are adopting AI at scale throughout their organizations, while regulators, customers, and business partners increasingly want proof that those systems can be trusted.

Appia’s answer is to create clear, common requirements that turn AI standards and legal obligations into specific criteria that can be tested and audited.

The foundation launched under the Linux Foundation’s Joint Development Foundation, which provides a legal and organizational framework for companies and institutions to work together on shared technology projects, including developing technical specifications, standards, data sets and source code. Appia said it will create open specifications that apply across the AI value chain.

There are 14 initial members including Google, Mastercard, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electric, Nemko, OpenAI, and Siemens.

The Appia Foundation said the specifications will serve as the basis for testing criteria, evaluation guidelines, and component typologies (categories of AI system parts, such as algorithms and datasets) covered by the standards. The goal is to provide organizations with a more consistent way to assess AI systems without forcing every company to start from scratch.

Jim Zemlin, Chief Executive of the Linux Foundation, said global organizations need a consistent and practical way to verify that AI systems conform to new expectations as international standards and laws become more established.

Craig Shank, Executive Director of the Appia Foundation, said, “AI systems now make decisions about people’s loans, their children’s schools and their jobs. People on the receiving end deserve to know those systems were built and assessed against criteria that hold up to scrutiny.”

Major technology companies framed the effort as a way to reduce fragmentation in AI governance. Amanda Storey, Google’s Vice President of Trust and Safety, EMEA, said Google joined Appia to work with the industry on global AI safety standards. Natasha Crampton, Microsoft’s Chief Responsible AI Officer, said organizations need practical ways to demonstrate the trustworthiness of their AI systems as adoption accelerates.

OpenAI also backed the effort. Ann O’Leary, OpenAI’s vice president of global affairs, said global trust in advanced AI will require shared, practical standards, not just shared principles.

The foundation is now inviting additional organizations to join. Its work will test whether major AI developers, enterprise technology companies, and assurance providers can agree on a common way to measure AI trust before regulators and buyers impose their own.