US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference

During a State Department presentation at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a US government map of Africa incorrectly labeled every country. The erroneous map, displayed during a discussion of new health agreements, contained an artificial intelligence watermark, indicating it was created with OpenAI tools, which the company is investigating. The State Department stated it took "full responsibility" for the error, explaining that a team member hastily produced the map. The map notably depicted Nigeria as landlocked and misplaced Mozambique and Ivory Coast. Screenshots of the map, initially shared by AIDS expert Emily Bass, circulated widely online, with Matt Petit of the Atlantic Council commenting, "Whoever created and approved this slide did not know where countries in Africa are and did not care to check their work." Despite the incident, the State Department affirmed its commitment to fighting AIDS, although it is scaling back some prevention and surveillance spending and plans to phase out the PEPFAR program in South Africa.