Nowadays in many households, both parents have to work. This means that if family isn’t available, they’ll have to find a babysitter. This could be quite scary as care of a child could be left to a complete stranger. One company is using artificial intelligence to do the ultimate background check and help parents assess potential babysitters.

Predictim Analyses Social Media to Give a Risk Score

Predictim does a full analysis of a person’s social media and digital footprint to give out an overall “risk score”. It looks at over 6 billion data points to help give parents an easy to understand report.

Post a picture of yourself smoking weed or curse out someone over Twitter, you will be flagged as high risk. Share pictures of kittens or your latest Pokemon exploits; you’ll be the next Mary Poppins.

AI Takes 3 Minutes to Access Candidates

Predictim uses language-processing algorithms and an image-recognition software to look at every post a person has ever made on sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The process takes less than 3 minutes and gives potential employers a full personality report and highlights key attributes.

If a potential caregiver has been listed as a moderate risk or higher in any category, the parent will be able to see the flagged posts that raised the score. Only the employer has access to Predictim’s report.

Candidates are Scored on Potential Bullying, Antagonism, Lewdness, and Drug Abuse

Predictim gives a risk score in four main categories; Bullying, Antagonism, Lewdness, and Drug Abuse. For Bullying its looks for things like criticizing or insulting other people. So your uncle who calls your cousin a snowflake might not be a prime babysitting candidate. If you are posting pictures of yourself half-naked going to the club then you might not do well in the Lewdness category.

Drug Abuse looks for anything related to using illicit substances. Oddly enough alcohol and cigarettes are not factored into the score. Apparently drunken chain smokers are perfectly suitable to watch children. Antagonism looks for signs of disrespect and rude behavior.

A Predictim scan starts at $24.99 and requires a babysitter’s name, email address, and consent to share access to their social media accounts. If the potential babysitter declines, the parent will be notified. The person will then receive a notice saying they won’t be considered for the position until they complete the request.

Fair to Job Seekers?

Of course, something like this is going to raise a ton of concerns. Would innocently posting a movie quote or a music video raise a red flag about a potential candidate? Should a few dumb posts someone made as a teenager affect job prospects when they are in their twenties? AI can be an effective tool in the hiring process but ultimately needs to be overseen by a human.

Despite concerns, we believe Predictim is going to quite popular with new parents. And to be honest, we would use it if we ever need to find a babysitter. Obviously, a human should be the one making the final decision but artificial intelligence can be a useful partner in finding the perfect candidate.

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