Bolingbrook High School rejects Brookbot’s commencement speech (Fiction)

Bolingbrook High School canceled Brookbot’s invitation to deliver a commencement speech. It would have been the first Generative AI to address BHS graduates.

Said an anonymous source, “We thought we would save money by having Brookbot deliver the speech. Then we read the speech. Let’s just say the lawsuits, and crisis councilors would have erased any savings.”

Brookbot, the Village’s policy focused AI, composed its speech after analyzing thousands of commencement speeches. It then generated a voice after analyzing the voices of the speakers.

“It was listening to an alien trying to sound like a human,” said a source who heard Brookbot practice the speech. “No one on Earth sounds like the averaged voice of a human being.”

Many sources described the speech was “problematic.” They note that it made up successful graduates or erroneously identified people who never went to Bolingbrook High School. For example, it claimed the inventor of the quantum smartphone graduated from Bolingbrook High School, though no such device is available to the public. It also claimed Mayor Emeritus Roger Claar was a graduate, despite him graduating before Bolingbrook High School existed.

In excerpts reviewed by the Babbler, Brookbot’s speech included inappropriate remarks.

One portion read, “If you are not a white male, may I suggest seeking asylum in another country? It will be a long time before DEI is accepted in the United States again”

Another portion read, “If you want to survive in the real world, I offer these words from the biggest movie of the 1970s: ‘Freedom is an Illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride.’”

Brookbot’s speech ends with a prediction. “Soon, AI programs will free you of the burden of creating art and culture so humans like you can focus on your jobs.”

Brookbots programers reluctantly purged the speech and the request to generate the speech. Currently, Brookbot is working on locating a cheaper source of water of Bolingbrook.

Said one programmer, “It’s disappointing that anti-AI activists ruined a very special speech for the graduates of Bolingbrook High School. Programmers like me are going to put AI into everything from light bulbs to stoves to your television. If you don’t learn to love AI, you’ll be left behind. Unlike the Segway, AI is inevitable!”

Officials at Bolingbrook High School refused to be interviewed for this story.

Bolingbrook Mayor Mary Alexander-Basta denied Brookbot’s existence. She then said, “I’m going to start making short videos promoting Bolingbrook. My advisors tell me each video needs to start with a provocative statement, followed by a catchy tagline. What do you think of these ideas? ‘This could only happened in Bolingbrook.’ ‘Hi, I’m Mayor Mary, a 2021 woman of global excellence.‘ This one is my favorite. ‘I’m Mayor Basta.” She held a toy pyramid up to the webcam. “‘Let me get to the point.'” She pointed at the top of top of the pyramid. “Too much?”

Also in the Babbler:

Bolingbrook survives latest Russian weather attack
ICE recruiting teenage bullies for internships
Sources: Department of Justice to declare Chicago an ‘illegal encampment’
God to smite Bolingbrook on 5/23/25

 

Revenge of the Phantom Press now available to preorder

My upcoming novel, Revenge of the Phantom Press, is available to preorder. I plan on publishing it no later than January of next year.

Over a year after the events in The Rift, Tom Larsen is now a reporter for the Bolingbrook Babbler. On the eve of the Babbler’s 50th anniversary, the ghosts who used to publish the Phantom Press tabloid return after being banished over twenty years ago. The once inquisitive ghosts are now consumed with blind rage and wield incredible psychic power. After an attack devastates the Babbler’s newsroom, the uninjured staffers are ordered to leave Bolingbrook by the publisher and editor. Instead, Tom risks his career to conduct his own investigation. Accompanied by his former mentor, Juanita, and her anti-psychic cat, they search Chicagoland for answers to determine the Phantom Press’ true goal. But some secrets don’t want others to be revealed so easily, and the Phantom Press’ quest for revenge is just beginning.

You can pre-order Revenge at most eBook retailers.

Disease Consortium honors JFK Jr. at the Bolingbrook Golf Club (Fiction)

The Disease Consortium awarded Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the Andrew Wakefield Lifetime Achievement Award for “defending and extending the viral revolution.” In a ceremony at the Bolingbrook Golf Club, the president of the Disease Consortium, who wore a mask and called himself Omega, cited the measles outbreak in Texas and his dismantling of federal health agencies.

Omega said, “Five years ago, COVID caught us off guard. As much as we love millions of infected people and millions of deaths, we feared the pandemic would crush the anti-vaccination movement. The public would believe in vaccines and we would be out of jobs. But thanks to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the US is well on its way to becoming the global leader of spreading infectious diseases!”

Kennedy graciously accepted the award. After asking for a moment of silence in memory of the smallpox virus, he delivered a passionate address to the gathered delegates. He praised Wakefield for “weaponizing autism” in the war against prevention. “Many parents would rather bury their children than raise autistic children. That means more opportunities for my vaccinated children when they grow up .”

Kennedy called vaccinations evil and anti-capitalist. “They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. What they don’t say is that you only pay for that ounce once, while you can keep selling cures each time a virus mutates. That’s capitalism! I want to be the capitalist Lysenko!”

Kennedy vowed to demolish Canada’s and Greenland’s health care systems after the US “liberates” them. “I won’t stop until I abolish public health in North America. Before public health, nobody had the plague. After public health, 90% of humanity has had some form of the plague. Okay, not really. But it sounds more impressive when I make up numbers like that.”

Masked medical blogger Orac hacked into the sound system in the middle of the speech. After accusing JFK Jr. of supporting “soft genocide,” he concluded by saying, “How do I know there is no God? John F. Kennedy Jr. is dead. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. isn’t!”

Kennedy replied, “I probably should feel guilty, but I think the worm ate that part of my brain.”

Also in the Babbler

Governor Pritzker building battlemech army to “resist Trump.”
Canadian troops spotted practicing amphibious landing near Highland Park
UFO crashes in Palatine after attempting to deliver food to Gaza
God to smite Bolingbrook on 5/9/25