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title: README
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# Airside Labs 🛫

**Accelerating safe AI adoption in aviation through rigorous evaluation and benchmarking**

## About Us

Airside Labs is a specialised AI research and development company focused on aviation sector innovation. We help businesses validate AI performance and achieve product-market fit faster through comprehensive testing frameworks and domain-specific benchmarks.

## Our Mission

To bridge the gap between cutting-edge AI capabilities and safe, reliable deployment for passenger travel and aviation use cases. We believe that proper evaluation is essential before AI systems can be trusted in business environments.

## Key Projects

### 🧪 Pre-flight Benchmark
Our flagship aviation AI evaluation framework, accepted into the UK AI Security Institute's collection of evaluations. Pre-flight tests Large Language Models' understanding of aviation operations, safety protocols, and real-world constraints.

- **Open Source**: Available for the entire aviation community
- **Comprehensive**: Covers ICAO standards, airport operations, safety procedures
- **Validated**: Developed with industry experts and regulatory input
- **Evolving**: Continuously updated as AI models advance

### 🎯 Domain-Specific Evaluations
We create custom benchmarks that go beyond standard metrics to test:
- Real-world operational understanding
- Safety-related understanding and reasoning (not for safety critical deployment)
- Regulatory compliance
- Edge case handling

## Why Aviation-Specific AI Evaluation Matters

Aviation AI systems must understand:
- Physical constraints (aircraft can't occupy the same gate)
- Regulatory requirements (ICAO, FAA, EASA standards)
- Safety protocols and emergency procedures
- International operational complexity

Generic benchmarks like MMLU miss these critical domain requirements.

## Resources

- **Website**: [airsidelabs.com](https://airsidelabs.com)
- **Benchmark Details**: [Pre-flight Aviation Benchmark](https://airsidelabs.com/aviation-ai-benchmark/)
- **Working Group**: [Join our AI Aviation Evaluation Community](https://airsidelabs.com/ai-aviation-eval-working-group/)

## Get Involved

We're building a community of aviation professionals and AI researchers. Whether you're:
- Developing AI for aviation applications
- Working in airport/airline operations
- Researching AI safety and evaluation
- Building regulatory frameworks

We'd love to collaborate!

## Contact

**Alex Brooker** - Founder  
Previously VP of R&D at Cirium (RELX), with 15+ years building data and systems for aviation.

Connect with us to discuss AI evaluation, benchmarking needs, or collaborative research opportunities.

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*"Better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground" - This aviation principle guides our approach to AI safety.*