Former social worker Thea Ramirez has developed an artificial intelligence-powered tool that she says helps social service agencies find the best adoptive parents for some of the nation’s most vulnerable kids
In this photo provided by the New York Stock Exchange, Adoption-Share founder and CEO Thea Ramirez, center, Miss Utah USA 2013 Marissa Powell, right, and fellow adoption supporters ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Aug. 20, 2013.
An Associated Press investigation, however, found that the AI tool – among the few adoption algorithms on the market – has produced limited results in the states where it has been used, according to Family-Match’s self-reported data that AP obtained through public records requests from state and local agencies.
State officials told AP that the organization that Ramirez runs as CEO owns some of the sensitive data Family-Match collects. They also noted that the nonprofit provided little transparency about how the algorithm works. “User satisfaction surveys and check-ins with our agency end users indicate that Family-Match is a valuable tool and helpful to users actively using it to support their recruitment + matching efforts,” Ramirez wrote.
Ramirez has said she called Gian Gonzaga, a research scientist who had managed the algorithms at eharmony, a dating site with Christian roots that promises users “real love” for those seeking marriage. She asked Gonzaga if he would team up with her to create an adoption matchmaking tool. Social workers say Family-Match works like this: Adults seeking to adopt submit survey responses via the algorithm’s online platform, and foster parents or social workers input each child’s information.
Once philanthropic dollars dried up in Florida, the state government picked up the tab, awarding Adoption-Share a $350,000 contract last month for its services.Adoption-Share has generated $4.2 million in revenue since 2016; it reported about $1.2 million in 2022, according to its tax returns. Georgia officials said they ended their initial pilot in October 2022 because the tool didn’t work as intended, ultimately only leading to two adoptions during their year-long experiment.
Statewide in Florida, Family-Match claimed credit for 603 placements that resulted in 431 adoptions over a five-year period, according to Adoption-Share’s third-quarter report for the 2023 fiscal year that AP obtained from a Pensacola-based child welfare organization. Jenn Petion, the president and CEO of the organization that handles adoptions in Jacksonville, said she likes how the algorithm lets her team tap into a statewide pool of potential parents. Petion has also endorsed Family-Match for helping her find her adoptive daughter, whom she described as a “100% match” in an Adoption-Share annual report.
“It’s frustrating that it’s saying that the kids are matched but in reality, when you get down to it, the families aren’t interested in them,” Bofill said of the algorithm. Officials in Virginia, Georgia and Florida said they weren’t sure how the tool scored families based on the highly sensitive variables powering the algorithm.
Virginia officials said once families’ data was entered into the tool, “Adoption Share owned the data.”
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