AIQA Global Publishes the Chicago Principles for Independent AI Assurance

Six Principles Define What Makes AI Governance Assurance Worthy of Public Trust

CHICAGO, May 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- AIQA Global, LLC., (AIQA), the first independent AI governance rating firm, today published The Chicago Principles for Independent AI Assurance, a six-principle framework defining the conditions under which third-party assurance of enterprise AI governance is worthy of public, regulatory, and capital markets trust. The Principles establish a common standard — Independent, Measurable, Auditable, Comparable, Continuously Updated, and Accountable — against which any AI governance assurance provider can be evaluated.

The Principles are named for Chicago — the city where Underwriters Laboratories was founded in 1894 to provide independent testing of new electrical technology, where the Chicago Board of Trade created the first standardized grading and inspection systems for tradeable commodities, and where AIQA and its first commercial client, the Am Law 200 firm Vedder, are headquartered today.

Established frameworks define what good AI governance looks like and what standards organizations should meet. None specifies the conditions under which third-party verification of compliance with those expectations is itself trustworthy. The Chicago Principles fill that gap.

The six principles, published in full at https://www.aiqaglobal.com/chicago-principles, are:

• Independent. Assurance providers must be free of commercial or governance entanglement with the organizations they evaluate.
  
  
• Measurable. Assurance must rest on observable, evidence-based criteria, not opinion or narrative attestation.
  
  
• Auditable. Methodology and evidence must be documented in sufficient detail that a qualified third party can reproduce the conclusion.
  
  
• Comparable. Scores must be produced on a consistent scale that allows meaningful comparison across organizations and time.
  
  
• Continuously Updated. Methodology must evolve with regulation, standards, and AI capability, and reflect current rather than historical governance practice.
  
  
• Accountable. Providers must stand behind their assessments through documented governance, conflict-of-interest controls, and independent oversight of their own methodology.

"Self-attestation is not governance. The Chicago Principles describe what assurance must be to deserve the trust markets are now asked to place in it," said James E. Malackowski, AIQA's Chairman. "They are not AIQA's competitive moat. They are the conditions under which any provider — including providers we will compete with — should be evaluated by anyone relying on the result."

"Frameworks tell organizations what good AI governance looks like. Standards tell them how to build it. The Chicago Principles tell the market how to evaluate the people doing the evaluating," said Chase Malackowski, AIQA's Co-Founder, Managing Director, and Chief Technology Officer. "Without that, third-party assurance becomes whatever a vendor says it is."

"Independent evaluation is the institutional discipline that lets markets trust what they cannot directly verify. AI governance now needs that same discipline," said the Honorable Randall R. Rader, former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Regulators, insurers, and institutional investors are increasingly focused on governance controls surrounding enterprise AI deployment. The EU AI Act's high-risk system obligations take effect in August 2026, and third-party assurance is consistently treated as the bridge between framework adoption and verifiable compliance. Until now, no public standard has defined what makes that assurance credible.

The Chicago Principles draw on precedent rather than invent it. Each of the six principles is grounded in established institutional practice across credit ratings, financial audit, patent valuation, and capital markets index methodology. The framework is offered to the public as a reference standard, with no proprietary claim, and is intended to support competition among assurance approaches rather than foreclose it.

The complete framework, including a discussion of the Chicago institutional tradition the Principles draw upon, is available at https://www.aiqaglobal.com/chicago-principles.

About AIQA Global, LLC

AIQA Global, LLC is the first independent AI governance rating firm, providing enterprises, investors, insurers, and boards with a standardized, quantitative measure of AI governance quality. The company's AIQ™ score quantifies enterprise AI governance quality across 250 data points and five dimensions. For more information, visit AIQA Global.

The Chicago Principles for Independent AI Assurance are published as a public reference standard and are not subject to proprietary claim. AIQ™ scores are based on disclosed and verified data and represent AIQA Global's independent assessment of AI governance quality. Scores do not constitute regulatory compliance, legal advice, or investment advice. No assurance is provided regarding future performance, risk outcomes, or insurance eligibility. AIQ™ and AIQ™ Score are trademarks of AIQA Global, LLC. Copyright 2026 AIQA Global, LLC. All rights reserved.

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SOURCE AIQA Global, LLC