The US State Department blamed a staffer for the error amid a probe into whether it was made by AI
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A U.S. State Department presentation at a global conference in Brazil this week caused widespread embarrassment after a map of Africa displayed during the event mislabeled every country on the continent.
The gaffe, which occurred during the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, quickly drew attention from attendees who captured screenshots and shared them online.
Reuters viewed a video of the presentation, which showcased the erroneous map midway through a discussion about the State Department's new health agreements.
The map image included an artificial intelligence watermark, indicating it was generated using OpenAI tools. The company has since stated it is investigating the report.
The State Department said it took "full responsibility" for the confusion and said the map was produced by a team member who hastily altered the slide deck before the event.
The inaccuracies were stark: Nigeria, where the US maintains a military presence, was depicted as landlocked in the Sahara Desert. Mozambique, located in southeastern Africa, was relocated to the Horn of Africa, while Ivory Coast in West Africa was inexplicably placed on the opposite side of the continent.
‘Did not care to check their work’ #
Screenshots of the map first surfaced in a Substack post by AIDS expert Emily Bass and rapidly gained traction on LinkedIn, with one post accumulating approximately 40,000 views.
Matt Petit, an expert on AI and geopolitics at the Atlantic Council, commented in the post, "Whoever created and approved this slide did not know where countries in Africa are and did not care to check their work."
In a statement, the State Department said: "We take full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners."
The speaker at the conference was Jeff Graham, the top U.S. health envoy who oversees an initiative known as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. He did not reply to requests for comment.
The State Department said the discussions at the conference were "substantive and constructive" despite the map and that it remains committed to fighting AIDS with real results.
The Trump administration's decision last year to funding pending a review disrupted aid programs worldwide but PEPFAR's core work such as the provision of life-saving drugs has largely resumed.
The U.S. is scaling back other areas of its spending including on prevention and surveillance, and plans to fully phase out the program in South Africa.