Sangamon County officials revealed an artificial intelligence-driven logo concept to commemorate America’s 250 years of independence and 100 years of Route 66 at the May 12 county board meeting. The logo, which District 17 board member Annette Fulgenzi said has some things to clean up, appears to depict Sangamon County with Christian County’s borders appended to the capital county’s southeast corner and only has 12 stripes for its colonial flag background.
Fulgenzi said she and District 23 board member Tony DelGiorno utilized AI, but did not specify which program, to design the logo quickly.
“It has a little, few minor things we have to clean up with the graphic designer, but AI was a wonderful tool for this,” she said. “Tony and I created this on the fly, so it came out pretty well.”
The statement prompted some groans from audience members waiting to eventually discuss the county’s April approval for CyrusOne’s conditional permitted use of 280 acres of agriculturally zoned land to build a hyperscale AI data center. But that sentiment wasn’t shared publicly by any board members; there was only praise for the design.
District 15 board member Tim Krell called it “one of the best logos I’ve ever seen, so thank you guys. That’s really impressive.”
DelGiorno, Fulgenzi and Krell all voted in favor of the data center proposal last month, although Fulgenzi also voted to extend public comment by 30 minutes while the other two voted against the extension.
Oh my gosh, what a scandal! Great job blowing the lid off of this one. This story will be told for decades to come.