The United States Department of State has apologised after an inaccurate map of Africa, reportedly generated using artificial intelligence, was displayed during an official presentation at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The erroneous map, which misplaced Nigeria and several other African countries, sparked widespread criticism online after screenshots from the presentation circulated across social media platforms.
The controversial slide was used during a session on new U.S. global health agreements and immediately drew the attention of conference participants, who questioned how such obvious geographical inaccuracies appeared in an official government presentation.
A review of footage from the conference reportedly showed an OpenAI watermark on the image, suggesting the map was created with the company's AI tools. OpenAI has since said it is investigating the incident.
Among the most glaring errors, Nigeria was incorrectly shown as a landlocked nation in the Sahara Desert instead of on the Gulf of Guinea.
Mozambique was also wrongly relocated from southeastern Africa to the Horn of Africa, while Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) was placed on the opposite side of the continent.
The inaccuracies first gained widespread attention after AIDS policy expert Emily Bass shared screenshots of the presentation in a post published on Substack.
The images quickly spread across LinkedIn and other social media platforms, with one post reportedly attracting about 40,000 views.
Reacting to the incident, Atlantic Council researcher Matt Petit criticised the apparent failure to verify the information before the presentation.
According to Reuters, Petit said the episode demonstrated that those responsible for preparing and approving the presentation neither knew the geographical locations of African countries nor took the time to verify the contents before using them.
In a statement, the U.S. State Department accepted responsibility for the mistake and apologised to conference participants, particularly African delegates.
The department explained that the incorrect map was inserted into the presentation following last-minute edits by a staff member shortly before the session.
"We take full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners," the department said.
The presentation was delivered by Jeff Graham, the senior U.S. official responsible for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the United States' flagship global HIV/AIDS initiative.
Graham did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident.
Despite the controversy, the State Department said discussions at the conference remained constructive and reiterated the U.S. government's commitment to supporting global HIV/AIDS programmes.
The incident comes at a time when Washington is implementing significant reforms to its foreign assistance programmes, drawing increased scrutiny of its international engagements.
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