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Wednesday • October 1, 2025
A.I. is ruining our future society’s chance of success by Alonn Matthews Alonn Matthews was a freshman at Unity Christian Academy, where she participated in tennis and Student Ambassadors, when she wrote this essay. Alonn loves spending time with her family, studying and riding roller coasters. There are a great deal of movies like Blade Runner, Wall-e, Avengers, Megan, etc. that depict how robots and A.I. will one day take over the world. Well what if that day is already here? A.I. has been getting more advanced in the last few years and is now popping up everywhere. A.I. assistants like iPhone’s Siri, ChatGPT, Meta A.I., Alexa, and more are becoming more pervasive in our daily lives. Most people use them every day in their homes, workplaces, and in school and many people rely on them. A.I. agents are artificial intelligence that have the ability to perform tasks similarly to humans, like learning and problem solving. This includes being able to perform human jobs. A big issue with A.I. is it could make it harder for future generations to make a living, especially in Chicago. This could collapse the economic system. A solution can be to decrease education costs to get more people to work in fields like journaling, construction, and cooking and find ways for A.I. and humans to collaborate. A.I. robots are already in restaurants. Companies are starting to use them as waiters and cooks. An expert A.I. company, Proven Robotics says, “Waiter robots use a combination of sensors and artificial intelligence to navigate around the restaurant and interact with customers.” This reveals that engineers have created A.I. robots that work around people and have advanced their technology so humans can interact with them. Proven Robotics also says that A.I. robots can use language and speech processing to communicate with people by having customers voice their order, relay info on the menu, and respond with a generated or pre-recorded voice. This development shows that robots could very well replace humans in the workplace and reduce the need for human workers. This will disrupt the economy. In particular, Illinois is one state that shows a lot of robot advancements and growth.
The Century Foundation says, “states in the Midwest (the East North Central, or ENC census division) - Michigan, Ohio Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin - consistently have the highest robot intensities, typically at least twice the intensity of all other regions.” This reveals that Illinois is among the states with large advancements in the robotic workforce. According to CNBC, Chicago, Naperville, and Joliet, Illinois are the second most impacted areas where robots take over jobs. So, people who live in the Chicago area will start being impacted by A.I. disrupting the economic system. And the more that A.I. robots advance, the more future generations will be impacted. So, A.I.’s large impact on the Chicago area and their advancements are starting to take up workspaces and disrupt the economy. Fewer job opportunities means more people will be unable to make a living and buy necessities and wants. Not only does it affect consumers and buyers, but also the sellers as the ones selling these needs and wants won’t get the profit they expect if the buyers are not able to buy their products. This all cycles back to the workers. Companies not making profit affects their workers greatly because they are not able to get their salary. This can lead to workers getting laid off and needing to find jobs again. One solution to this problem is to decrease the cost of education. This is so companies can find more people to learn and do the work that machines do and help them do those jobs more efficiently. Decreasing the cost of education gets more people more educated on multiple topics. This leads to another opportunity - getting humans and A.I. robots to work collaboratively rather than letting robots take up all the jobs. According to Forbes, the hybrid workforce corrects an issue of people spending unnecessary time at work. They say that 54% of workers’ time is spent on busy work. This information gives us the benefits of A.I. and humans working together. Forbes explains that A.I. Assisting humans in the workplace can help complete tasks efficiently. This essay is part of a series of perspectives written by students at Unity Christian Academy in South Holland. The topics cover some of the most pressing issues of our times and the opinions are of the writers themselves. We are grateful to UCA English Educator Hannah Morgan for organizing this partnership.
How Social media can expose younger generations to dangerous and sensitive content by Chase J. Neither Chase J. Neither is a student at Unity Christian Academy who takes his writing seriously. His hobbies include late-night drives, finding new ways and opportunities to earn money, and saving, and reviewing films. Have you ever thought about how social media will influence the younger generation? Well you should. Because according to cyberbullying.org, cyberbullying is related to low self esteem, suicidal ideation, anger, frustation, and psychological problems to the young minds of our generation. It also cited how cyberbullying can be related to real world issues including school problems, due to classmates cyberbullying their fellow classmates, antisocial behavior with younger minds making their Instagram account, or TikTok account private so they won’t be ashamed of posting themselves for people who follow them. Along with cyberbullying, access to the internet allows substance abuse and delinquency due to how Instagram, TikTok, and X have videos or information on who to contact to buy perks, lean, molly, weed, ecstacy, and edibles from online drug dealers, or where the location is to purchase these substances. Now you might be wondering why is a child telling the audience all of this information? Well it’s simple, I don’t want little kids to be taken advantage of by social media and the Internet. I’m concerned that they can become victims of cyberbullying. I don’t want anyone to feel put down at a young age like I did when I was younger. When I was between 9- and 12-years-old I was bullied for my looks, people would call me ugly and tease me about my facial features. That led me to feeling insecure and alone. This is why I want the younger generation to be more aware, ESPECIALLY with the internet or social media. Now after knowing all of this information, you might be wondering, is this all we need
to know on why social media is dangerous to the younger generations? Well no, this is just the tip of the iceberg of how social media is a bad influence on the younger generation. Social media can show extremely explicit content, like gory fights, deaths, porn, and etc. It can also contain websites where the youth can interact with strangers online from apps like Discord and Omegle where people go to meet strangers who might be predators, criminals, and psychos. Another issue would be scammers that would want to take your personal information, so they can hack your data and steal or leak your personal information like your address, name and age. One other issue would be like weirdos on the Internet who could be asking for nudes, or videos of you doing inappropriate things or to meet up with you to see you in person to “hang out.” According to a recent report from Yale Medicine, exposure to these types of content can normalize bad behaviors, and in some cases, people who target adolescents are “adults seeking to sexually exploit children. For example, 12-year-old Maria Gomez-Perez went missing from her Georgia home when she was found in Ohio with a man she met online.” This is an example of why we should keep the younger generation away from social media because if we continue to let this happen they will sooner or later, they might become victims like Maria Gomez-Perez. One way for parents to handle this is to wait until their children are a certain age to know about these types of people, make sure you moderate your kids so they won’t know all this sensitive content, and information, and warn them on the types of people that are on social media. Lastly, make sure you know their password to check on them just in case. This essay is part of a series of perspectives written by students at Unity Christian Academy in South Holland. The topics cover some of the most pressing issues of our times and the opinions are of the writers themselves. We are grateful to UCA English Educator Hannah Morgan for organizing this partnership.
Giannoulias Takes Aim at Financial Scammers Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias has strengthened the state’s Securities Department with four high-level hires charged with protecting and safeguarding the financial interests of Illinoisans and their investments. The office has hired a new Deputy Director, Chief of Enforcement, Chief of Examinations, and Senior Investigator, each of whom bring a wealth of knowledge in financial law, litigation and investigations to their respective positions. In addition, Giannoulias was also reappointed earlier this month as Co-Chair of the Securities Committee of the National Association of Secretaries of State, and his Department Director Chet Taylor was elected to the Board of Directors of the North American Securities Administrators Association. The Illinois Secretary of State’s Securities Department regulates the investment industry in Illinois, registering more than 250,000 securities salespeople and 25,000 investment advisor representatives statewide, while cracking down on instances of fraud, scams and financial abuse. The Securities Department has 37 employees and generates more than $60 million each year in fees, fines and penalties for the state. Like that of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Illinois Securities Department’s budget is funded by its collection of fees from the securities industry and money recovered from administrative fines to fund its operations, rather than relying on taxpayer dollars. By devoting more resources to increase the number of
attorneys, investigators, and examiners and enhancing its financial literacy efforts, the state will better safeguard citizens’ financial interests and small investors. Additionally, these efforts pay for themselves while bringing in more revenue. The new hires include: Kristine Kolky joins the Securities Department as its Deputy Director. In this role, Kris oversees monitoring and investigating claims of financial exploitation, targeting seniors and other vulnerable individuals. She also provides educational resources to help residents prevent and report financial fraud. Prior to joining the department, Kris was a partner at Taft, Stettinius & Hollister in Chicago, where she specialized in complex commercial litigation. Kolky graduated from the University of Michigan before earning her law degree from DePaul University School of Law. Victor Turla joins the Securities Department as Chief of Enforcement. In this role, Victor oversees investigations involving violations of Illinois securities law, initiating enforcement actions and ensuring compliance with laws and regulations. Prior to his appointment, Victor served for 11 years with the Illinois Attorney General’s office, including three years as Deputy Bureau Chief in the Special Prosecutions Bureau. While there, he handled complex criminal and financial investigations. Victor earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and received his Juris
Doctor from Saint Louis University School of Law. Frank Ronis will serve as Chief of Examinations, overseeing department’s efforts to examine the books, records, and sales practices of Illinois-registered investment firms to assess compliance under state and federal laws. Frank began his securities career as an examiner with the Illinois Securities Department, followed by more than two decades as a Senior Examiner with the Securities & Exchange Commission. He holds a B.B.A degree from Roosevelt University, an M.B.A. from Dominican University, and is a Certified Fraud Examiner. Jordan Frieberg assumes the role of Senior Securities Investigator with the department. As an investigator, Jordan conducts complex investigations of possible violations of the anti-fraud provisions of the Illinois Securities Law. Jordan has extensive expertise related to cyber and crypto fraud, including a deep understanding of the new forms of technology that scammers leverage to swindle Illinois residents. Jordan has been responsible for taking down numerous fraudulent websites that had attempted to scam investors through the sale of fake investments. Jordan spent nearly three years as an investigator with the Arizona Securities Division. He earned a master’s degree from Michigan State University in Law Enforcement Intelligence and Analysis, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota in Criminal Justice.