A US government delegation to an AIDS conference mislabelled every nation in Africa on a map it used during a presentation.
Audience members at the conference in Brazil naturally snapped the bizarre map and shared it online.
A Reuters analysis found:
The image of the map included in the presentation contained an artificial intelligence watermark that signals it was made with OpenAI tools. The company said it was investigating the report.
The state department said it took “full responsibility” for the confusion caused and that the map had been produced by a team member who hastily changed the slide deck before the event.
What a Reuters headline: "US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference" https://t.co/QcIf2JY6Rv pic.twitter.com/3kEYndmlle
— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) July 30, 2026
While the Guardian said:
The map showed Nigeria, where the US currently has several hundred troops deployed, as landlocked in the Sahara desert. Mozambique, which is in south-eastern Africa, was relocated to the Horn of Africa, while Côte d’Ivoire in west Africa was placed on the other side of the continent.
Africa map created ‘confusion and misrepresentation’
The US State Department told reporters:
We take full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners.
Democratic member of the US Foreign Relations Committee, Jeanne Shaheen, wrote:
What an embarrassment. This is what happens when [the State Department] fires career experts and tries to have AI conduct diplomacy.
The Atlantic Council’s Matt Petit, who was at the conference, added:
This is beyond embarrassing. It shows a profound lack of professionalism and care for the subject.
Problem is, none of these countries are right. In many places, they are comically wrong.
Petit continued:
I strongly suspect this is an AI-made slide. Whoever created and approved this slide did not know where countries in Africa are and did not care to check their work. That latter point means they also *did not care enough* about the subject matter to bother.
On a more serious note, Donald Trump’s administration cut aid to AIDS programmes in January 2025. A move which NGO workers described as seeing “progress slip backwards”.
Considering the US’ role as global hegemon, one might think it’d look at a map once in a while. And given that some of the nations misplaced on this AI map currently have US troops in them, Marco Rubio’s state department has questions to answer.
Featured image via Yan Krukau/ Pexels
By Joe Glenton
