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White Paper by Intertek: A Comprehensive Guide to AI Quality Assurance

William Attardi on March 21, 2026

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming products, processes, and decision-making across industries, bringing enormous opportunity alongside a new category of risks around safety, bias, drift, data governance, and regulatory compliance. Rapidly evolving regulations like the EU AI Act all present challenges that traditional quality systems weren’t designed to handle. Download our new whitepaper to learn how to embed AI into your existing quality systems, strengthen audit readiness, and deploy AI with confidence across global markets.  In this paper you’ll learn:

  • Where AI is entering your organization and how to manage it
  • The most common AI risks, including hallucinations, bias, and loss of control
  • What regulators expect now, and what’s coming next
  • How to apply proven quality principles, including testing, validation, monitoring, and governance, to AI systems

If AI touches your products, processes, or decisions, this guide is built for you: A Comprehensive Guide to AI Quality Assurance | White Paper

Unlocking Smart Efficiency: Your Guide to AI-Ready Buildings

William Attardi on December 5, 2025

Discover how AI can optimize energy, comfort, and operations and how you can lead smarter, more sustainable buildings. Navigate the transition to AI-ready buildings.  This whitepaper sponsored by Schneider Electyric offers insights into energy optimization, alarm management, sustainability reporting, and predictive maintenance.  Gain actionable strategies, real-world case studies, and a clear roadmap to harness AI for smarter, more efficient, and future-proof building operations. Unlocking Smart Efficiency: Your Guide to AI-Ready Buildings | Buildings

The Statue of Liberty was made with copper but due to oxidation, it turned green.

When the “Lady in the Harbor” first arrived in New York in 1886, she didn’t look like the mint-green icon we know today. In fact, for the first twenty years of her life, she stood as a towering, metallic beacon of reddish-gold. Designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and engineered by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the statue was a gift from France to America. To build her, Bartholdi chose copper for three practical reasons:

  • Malleability:It could be hammered into elaborate, thin sheets.
  • Weight:Copper is lighter than stone or bronze, making it easier to ship 350 individual pieces across the Atlantic.
  • Durability:It was strong enough to survive a 27-day ocean voyage and the harsh winds of the harbor.

When she was unveiled on October 28, 1886, her skin—made of 300 copper sheets roughly the thickness of two pennies—shone with a bright, metallic brown luster. The transformation from “penny-colored” to “patina-green” wasn’t planned. Bartholdi actually expected the statue to age into a deeper, darker red. However, the unique environment of New York Harbor—a mix of salt air, moisture, and industrial pollution—triggered a process called oxidation.

The Timeline of Change:

  1. 1886–1900:The bright copper dulled into a dark, muddy brown.
  2. 1903:The first hints of a light green crust, or “patina,” began to appear.
  3. 1906:The color change was so controversial that Congress nearly stepped in. They appropriated $62,000 to paint the statue back to its original color, but the public protested, calling the idea “sacrilege.”
  4. 1910–1920:The statue was a patchy mix of brown and green until 1920, when the oxidation was complete, leaving her entirely teal.

While we now view the green color as iconic, it actually serves a vital structural purpose. The layer of verdigris (the green patina) acts as a protective shield. It seals the copper underneath, preventing the metal from further corrosion and weathering.  By the time the color fully changed, a new generation of immigrants had arrived in America seeing a green statue.