A US government map of Africa displayed during a state department presentation at the Aids 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, mislabeled every country, causing a stir among attendees who took screenshots and posted them online. The map was shown halfway through a presentation about the state department’s new health agreements. Reuters viewed a video of the presentation and found that the image of the map included an artificial intelligence watermark, signaling it was made with OpenAI tools.
The company did not respond to a request for comment. The state department took full responsibility for the confusion caused, stating that the map had been produced by a team member who hastily changed the slide deck before the event. The map incorrectly placed several countries, including Nigeria, which was shown as landlocked in the Sahara desert, and Mozambique, which was relocated to the Horn of Africa.
Screenshots of the map were widely shared online, with one post garnering about 40,000 views. Experts criticized the mistake, with one stating that whoever created and approved the slide did not know where countries in Africa are and did not care to check their work. The state department said that despite the map error, the discussions at the conference were substantive and constructive, and that it remained committed to fighting Aids with real results.
The US is scaling back some areas of its spending, including on prevention and surveillance, and plans to fully phase out the program in South Africa.
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