# 4.3 Intended application of principles, ISO 42102

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  4.3 Clause

  

# Intended application of principles

  The subclause says where the principles are meant to be applied. The framework is for describing a system so that people can reason about its suitability, its construction, its change and its behaviour, not for scoring the system or certifying it.

  
- principles clause

- ISO/IEC DIS 42102

- Last updated: 2026-10-22

  
    

## What this settles

Application is where a descriptive standard is most often over-claimed. A completed matrix is not an assurance opinion, and the draft does not turn it into one. Keeping that line visible protects both the team and the reader.

    

## Who it binds

The organisation and anyone who receives the description. A recipient who treats the matrix as a certificate has misread it, and the supplier has a reason to say so in the document.

    

## What to do in your practice

Put a use statement on the cover of every characterization: what the document supports and what it does not. Name the decisions it may inform and the decisions that need a separate assessment.

    

## Evidence an auditor or regulator asks for

      Three artefacts that make this unit checkableA cover note with the permitted and excluded uses.Stops the matrix being read as a certificate.
A named recipient and the decision they will take.Ties the document to a real use.
A cross-reference to the impact assessment where one is required.Shows the boundary between description and assessment.

    Ask your teamIs anyone about to treat this matrix as evidence that the system is safe, fair or compliant?

    

## Common gaps this page catches

- The matrix is filed as an assurance artefact with no statement of its limits.

- A recipient uses the description to approve a system it was never meant to approve.

- No link exists to the impact assessment that the decision actually needs.

    

## What to prepare before publication

Add the use statement and the recipient to the template. Where a decision needs an impact assessment, link it rather than stretching the description.

    

## How to test it here

Take one live system rather than a template, find the field or sentence where Intended application of principles is used, and put this page beside it. Record the answer, the artefact and the date. A glossary entry on its own is an intention; a dated record beside a live artefact is evidence.

    

## What this page does not claim

The page does not reproduce the draft, does not know the descriptor wording that the public preview withholds, and does not certify the system or the organisation. It states the unit at the claim level "principles clause" and stops where the public record stops.

    

## Common questions

    What does Intended application of principles mean in ISO/IEC DIS 42102?
The subclause says where the principles are meant to be applied. The framework is for describing a system so that people can reason about its suitability, its construction, its change and its behaviour, not for scoring the system or certifying it.
What evidence should we keep for 4.3?
A cover note with the permitted and excluded uses. A named recipient and the decision they will take.
Is Intended application of principles a requirement?
No. The draft is a descriptive framework. It sets no management system requirement and no conformity test. It becomes binding only when a contract, a regulator or a management system adopts it.

    

## Related units

    
- 4 Principles of AI system characterization based on methods and capabilities

- 4.5 Application to AI systems

- 7.3 Characterization framework of AI system methods and capabilities

  

  
    
      

## Source and claim

      ISO/IEC DIS 42102, Clause 4.3, Intended application of principles

      Open the ISO public entry

      https://www.iso.org/standard/86898.html

      Retrieved 22 October 2026.

      The heading is in the public preview; the body is not.

    

    
      

## The record

      Stage 40.60, Close of voting, recorded 8 September 2026.

      Planning date 16 September 2027, an estimate. See the basis.

      The draft record · How it is built

    

    
      

## Check your own system

      Build the method and capability matrix from ten answers and see which cells still need evidence.

      Run the free check

    

  

Nothing here is guessed while you wait. Every line is written from the public ISO record and the public preview, and points to the exact clause it came from. How the record is built.

Last updated: 2026-10-22 · Markdown version · Check your system

Source: https://iso-42102-revision-checker.theartofservice.com/clauses/principles-application/