Friday, July 31, 2026 - The US State Department has apologised after displaying an AI-generated map that incorrectly labelled several African countries during a presentation at the 26th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) in Brazil.
The map, used during a session on the State Department's new
global health agreements, misplaced several countries across the continent.
Nigeria was incorrectly shown as a landlocked country in the Sahara Desert
instead of West Africa, while Mozambique appeared in the Horn of Africa rather
than southeastern Africa. Côte d'Ivoire was also placed on the wrong side of
the continent.
The errors drew widespread attention after conference
attendees photographed the slide and shared it online. According to Reuters,
analysis of the presentation video showed the image carried a watermark
indicating it had been generated using OpenAI tools. OpenAI said it was
investigating the report.
The State Department accepted responsibility for the
mistake, attributing it to a staff member who hurriedly modified the
presentation shortly before the session. "We take full responsibility for
the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our
African partners," the department said in a statement.
The presentation was delivered by Jeff Graham, the senior US
health official overseeing the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR), one of the world's largest HIV/AIDS programmes. The incident prompted
criticism from health and policy experts, who questioned how the geographical
errors passed official quality checks.
Matt Petit, an artificial intelligence and geopolitics
specialist at the Atlantic Council, told Reuters the slide reflected a lack of
basic geographical knowledge and inadequate quality control before it was
presented.
The inaccurate map gained wider attention after AIDS
researcher Emily Bass shared screenshots in a Substack post, with the images
subsequently circulating across social media platforms.
The incident comes as the United States reviews its overseas
health assistance under President Donald Trump's administration. While PEPFAR
has largely resumed supplying life-saving HIV medicines following last year's
foreign aid review, US funding for disease prevention, surveillance and other
health programmes has been reduced. The administration has also announced plans
to phase out PEPFAR operations in South Africa as part of a broader shift in
its global health strategy.
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