The declared interest in plain words
One owner holds both AIR APAC and Exeter Labs, the company that builds and operates StepSim. This page states that interest sentence by sentence, and lists what the Standard does so that a reader can check a result instead of taking it on trust.
Eyebrow: Built by Exeter Labs
Exeter Labs builds and operates StepSim, AIR APAC's official assessment instrument. The owner of AIR APAC also owns Exeter Labs.
Judgment is how well a person decides once AI has given the answer. AIRS-J/1 is AIR APAC's Standard for judgment in AI-enabled work. A reader who relies on a result needs to know who owns the instrument that produced it. This page sets out that interest, and what the Standard does about it, in the Standard's own words. Section numbers refer to AIRS-J/1 v2.3.
The interest, sentence by sentence
Section 4.9, "Declared interests of the issuing body", has six sentences. Each is quoted in short below, beside its plain reading.
| What Section 4.9 says | What it means |
|---|---|
| "The owner of AIR APAC Pte. Ltd. also owns Exeter Labs." | One owner holds both companies. The body that sets the Standard and the company that builds its instrument have the same owner. |
| StepSim is "an AIR APAC initiative, built and operated by Exeter Labs, and is the official instrument of this Standard". | AIR APAC started StepSim. Exeter Labs writes and runs the software. What StepSim records under its published specification counts as evidence for certification (Section 16.3). |
| Exeter Labs "also holds the intellectual property in, builds and operates the other tools AIR APAC uses, under contract with AIR APAC". | StepSim is not the only link. Exeter Labs owns, builds and runs the other software AIR APAC uses, under a contract between the two companies. |
| "AIR Academy, AIR APAC's learning division, delivers the StepSim facilitator programme under a written arrangement with Exeter Labs." | AIR APAC's own learning division teaches the programme that prepares trainers to run StepSim sessions. Exeter Labs, which owns the software, is the other party to that arrangement. |
| "AIR APAC certifies the facilitators who complete it"; Exeter Labs "licenses certified facilitators to run it, and issues no certification". | AIR APAC certifies facilitators under AIRS-J/1 Section 20.6; Exeter Labs issues the licence, not the certification. A facilitator certification is not a judgment credential. |
| "Any further arrangement between the two is entered here before it takes effect." | A new arrangement between AIR APAC and Exeter Labs does not take effect until it is written into Section 4.9. |
What the Standard does about it
The interest stays. The Standard does not ask a reader to trust the owner. It sets rules that a reader can check against any result.
- The rubric is public. A criterion that is not in the Standard or in the instrument specification "does not exist" (Section 4.1).
- A rule change comes with a new version. A change to the instrument specification that changes a rule is released with a new version of the Standard (Annex F).
- What was bought does not decide the result. Outcomes are decided "by the rules in Section 12 alone, never by what a candidate or employer bought". The owner of AIR APAC "takes no part in any individual result" (Section 4.3).
- No fee depends on the outcome. No assessor, delivery partner, trainer or licensee is paid "on a basis that varies with candidate outcomes" (Section 4.4).
- Every level shows its basis. In rule-based scoring, "every level cites the events and the rule that produced it" (Section 11.4). No model's opinion stands alone as a reading.
- The appeals reviewer. The person who reviews an appeal is "not involved in the original decision or delivery, and not employed by or paid through Exeter Labs" (Section 17).
- Other instruments may be approved. Further instruments may be approved, and "AIR APAC publishes the list of approved instruments and their owners" (Section 16.3).
- Assessment data is not sold. AIR APAC and its instrument provider, Exeter Labs, use assessment data to operate, check and improve the Standard and the official instrument. "It is not sold" (Section 14.7).
AIR APAC's wider rules on independence, including how it keeps research separate from sales, are on its Independence page.
What the interest does not change
The rules above apply to each result. They do not change who decides on the Standard. The Standard says so plainly: the owner of AIR APAC "decides, and holds a veto over the board's recommendations" (Section 4.2). The review board reviews every major version before release, and each member's dissent is recorded in the version history. So the owner of Exeter Labs also decides on the Standard that its instrument implements. AIR APAC states this here so that no reader has to find it elsewhere.
What this does not claim
- It does not claim that the interest is removed or made harmless. The common ownership remains.
- It does not claim that AIR APAC and Exeter Labs are independent of each other. They have the same owner.
- It does not claim that these rules make a result correct. The validation report is published as the checks in the Standard are met.
- It does not claim that Exeter Labs certifies anyone. Exeter Labs issues no certification (Section 4.9).
AIR APAC publishes the standard for judgment in AI-enabled work, certifies people against it through its official instrument, and stands behind every result.