Maps are one of the most important tools travelers use to understand the world, whether they are planning a multicountry trip or just trying to figure out where a destination is located. When a map appears in an official government presentation, viewers also have good reason to expect that the basic geography is accurate, especially when it’s from an agency that issues country-specific travel advisories.
However, a map recently shown by the U.S. Department of State failed to meet that expectation. The slide, which appeared during an international health conference in Brazil, attempted to identify several countries in Africa, but none of them were in the correct locations.
The mistake drew attention after a conference attendee photographed the slide and shared it online. Here’s what went wrong with the map, how the State Department explained the mistake, and why the map’s incorrect depiction of Africa isn’t the only reason it is receiving scrutiny.
A U.S. State Department Map Placed African Countries In The Wrong Locations
The map appeared on July 26 during AIDS 2026, the 26th International AIDS Conference, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. According to Reuters, the slide appeared partway through a presentation given by Jeff Graham, the U.S. global health envoy responsible for overseeing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Although the map didn’t attempt to identify all 54 countries in Africa, every country it highlighted was placed in the wrong location.
Nigeria was one of the most obvious examples. The country is located in West Africa and has a coastline along the Gulf of Guinea, yet the map moved it north into the Sahara Desert and depicted it as landlocked.
Mozambique was also placed far from its actual location. Instead of appearing in southeastern Africa along the Indian Ocean, it was moved to the Horn of Africa. Similarly, Côte d’Ivoire, also known as the Ivory Coast, was shifted from West Africa to the other side of the continent.
Other mistakes were less obvious but still concerning. According to AIDS expert Emily Bass, Uganda and Malawi appeared in approximately the right areas but had the wrong borders. Cameroon was included in a list next to the map, but its name did not clearly connect to a country.
Bass, who attended the session, published screenshots of the slide on Substack. After reading the Substack post, Matt Petit, who spent over 16 years as a State Department foreign service officer and now specializes in AI and geopolitics at the Atlantic Council, said he suspected that the map was created using artificial intelligence.
“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. … AI maybe saved two minutes in Microsoft Paint, filling in a blank map. Was it worth it?” Petit wrote on LinkedIn.
Petit’s hypothesis wasn’t based on suspicions alone. The image contained another visible clue suggesting that artificial intelligence had been used to create it.
An Apparent AI Watermark Raised Questions About How The Map Was Checked
According to an analysis completed by Reuters, the map contained a watermark indicating that an OpenAI product had been used to make the image. OpenAI told Reuters that it was investigating the report. However, the company didn’t identify which product was used.
The watermark doesn’t necessarily mean that the entire finished slide was created by AI. A person could have added text, lines, or other elements after generating the image. However, its presence has prompted criticism from other notable voices.
Former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, Patrick Gaspard, was also among those who weighed in. Calling the AI-generated map an “insult” to Africa, he wrote on X that people were “right to be appalled.”
Saman Zia-Zarifi, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, viewed the mistake as part of an even larger problem.
“This utterly mislabeled map of Africa displayed at a US government discussion of HIV relief has now been widely recirculated and commented upon as a somewhat comical example of this administration’s incompetence. But there is real horror behind this in terms of thousands of people dead and ill because of the abruptness of the cuts to US public health support and their harm to Africa, and of course, eventually the US,” he wrote on X.
The mistake also uncovers the potential risks of relying on AI for travel planning, as even maps and itineraries that seem well-made can contain inaccurate information.
With the map drawing criticism from former diplomats and global health leaders, the State Department responded with an apology and an explanation.
The State Department Blamed The Mistake On A Last-Minute Change
After images of the slide circulated online, the State Department acknowledged the mistake and apologized for how the countries were represented on the map.
“We take full responsibility for the confusion and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners,” the department told Reuters.
In a separate response to TheTravel, a State Department spokesperson said the mistake was made due to a last-minute slide deck change, writing, “This was an unfortunate error caused by a team member who hastily altered the slide deck immediately before the presentation at the AIDS 2026 Conference.”
Despite the map error, the spokesperson said the session had been “substantive and constructive,” and that high-level delegations from several African countries had taken part in the discussions on local health programs.
The spokesperson didn’t respond to TheTravel’s questions about which OpenAI product was used to create the deck, whether the altered slide was reviewed before the presentation, or whether the corrected materials were then provided to attendees.
