Finding a trusted babysitter or caregiver is a challenge that plagues many parents; but could artificial intelligence narrow the options? One new service claims it can help parents refine their choices by digging into a potential caregiver's social media past. The company's technology claims to assess someone's online behavior and give parents a risk score to know what kind of person they are. Local parents we spoke with said they're unsure of its benefits. And Predictim has experienced some criticism, to the point that it has paused its operations.

When Jessie Battaglia started looking for a new babysitter for her 1-year-old son, she wanted more information than she could get from a criminal-background check, parent comments and a face-to-face interview. So she turned to Predictim, an online service that uses "advanced artificial intelligence" to assess a babysitter's personality, and aimed its scanners at one candidate's thousands of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts. The system offered an automated "risk rating" of the 24-year-old woman, saying she was at a "very low risk" of being a drug abuser. But it gave a slightly higher risk assessment -- a 2 out of 5 -- for bullying, harassment, being "disrespectful" and having a "bad attitude." The system didn't explain why it had made that decision.

If you're a parent with young kids, you probably know how arduous it can be to screen a babysitter. And among those who have hired one, a whopping 62 percent didn't bother to check their references. That spurred Sal Parsa and Joel Simonoff, the cofounders of Berkeley startup Predictim, to develop a no-frills solution that taps artificial intelligence (AI) to generate personality assessments from digital footprints. The eponymous Predictim platform, which launches today, uses natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision algorithms to sift through social media posts -- including tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram photos -- for warning signs. "The current background checks parents generally use don't uncover everything that is available about a person. Interviews can't give a complete picture," Parsa said.