diff --git a/buildSrc/build.gradle.kts b/buildSrc/build.gradle.kts
index 15b61a2..3bd0cc1 100644
--- a/buildSrc/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/buildSrc/build.gradle.kts
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 plugins {
     `kotlin-dsl`
 }
-repositories {
-    jcenter()
+
+tasks.withType<org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.KotlinCompile> {
+    kotlinOptions {
+        jvmTarget = "17"
+    }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index 442d913..d2880ba 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.8.3-bin.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-7.3.2-bin.zip
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/src/main/kotlin/com/anthonycicchetti/slackbot/Main.kt b/src/main/kotlin/com/anthonycicchetti/slackbot/Main.kt
index d55a1be..d6ee221 100644
--- a/src/main/kotlin/com/anthonycicchetti/slackbot/Main.kt
+++ b/src/main/kotlin/com/anthonycicchetti/slackbot/Main.kt
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import io.swagger.v3.oas.models.OpenAPI
 import io.swagger.v3.oas.models.info.Info
 import io.swagger.v3.oas.models.servers.Server
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory
+import java.util.*
 import kotlin.math.roundToInt
 
 fun main() {
@@ -52,7 +53,7 @@ fun main() {
             it.summary = "POST for UPPERCASING"
         }.body<String>().json<TextResponse>("200")) { ctx ->
             logger.info("Uppercase: Received request from ${ctx.req.requestURL}")
-            ctx.json(TextResponse(200, ctx.body().toUpperCase()))
+            ctx.json(TextResponse(200, ctx.body().uppercase(Locale.getDefault())))
         })
 
         post("/api/v1/claptext", documented(document().operation {
@@ -110,7 +111,7 @@ private fun sendResponse(ctx: Context, respObj: RespObj) {
                 put("text", respObj.text.toSpongemock()); put("response_type", "in_channel")
             }
             Commands.Uppercase -> {
-                put("text", respObj.text.toUpperCase()); put("response_type", "in_channel")
+                put("text", respObj.text.uppercase(Locale.getDefault())); put("response_type", "in_channel")
             }
             Commands.Claptext -> {
                 put("text", respObj.text.toClapText()); put("response_type", "in_channel")
diff --git a/src/main/kotlin/com/anthonycicchetti/slackbot/Transformations.kt b/src/main/kotlin/com/anthonycicchetti/slackbot/Transformations.kt
index feb3518..3f9a09c 100644
--- a/src/main/kotlin/com/anthonycicchetti/slackbot/Transformations.kt
+++ b/src/main/kotlin/com/anthonycicchetti/slackbot/Transformations.kt
@@ -6,9 +6,9 @@ fun String.toSpongemock(): String {
         .map { word ->
             word.mapIndexed { index, char ->
                 if (!index.isOdd()) {
-                    char.toUpperCase()
+                    char.uppercaseChar()
                 } else {
-                    char.toLowerCase()
+                    char.lowercaseChar()
                 }
             }.joinToString("")
         }.joinToString(" ")
diff --git a/versions.properties b/versions.properties
index db7243b..1890d4a 100644
--- a/versions.properties
+++ b/versions.properties
@@ -9,8 +9,6 @@
 
 plugin.com.github.johnrengelman.shadow=7.1.1
 
-plugin.org.gradle.kotlin.kotlin-dsl=2.1.7
-
 version.com.fasterxml.jackson.core..jackson-databind=2.13.0
 
 version.com.fasterxml.jackson.module..jackson-module-kotlin=2.13.0