Key terms.

Assessment date

The date on which practices were reviewed against the standard. A certification speaks to that date, not to every day afterwards.

Certification officer

The named person who verifies every requirement finding against your evidence, resolves every flag, decides your file and signs your certificate. It is the only term we use for this role.

EAUS

The Ethicality AI Use Standard. A practical standard for transparent, human-led business use of AI, built on fifteen requirements grouped under three ideas: be transparent, keep a human responsible, and protect confidential information.

Hallucination

When an AI system produces confident output that is simply wrong, including invented facts, sources, or citations. The standard asks how you catch this before it reaches a client.

Human in the loop

A named person who reviews AI-assisted work and carries responsibility for it. Not a policy statement, but an identifiable individual and a described review step.

Scope

The part of an organization, and the AI uses, covered by a certification. Anything outside the stated scope was not assessed.

Self-assessment

An organization checking its own practices against the standard. Useful preparation. It is not a certification and produces no badge.

Re-attestation

A five-minute annual confirmation, made against the same fifteen requirements, that a certified organization still meets the standard.

The requirements behind these terms are set out in the EAUS standard.