US officials acknowledged an embarrassing cartographic blunder during a State Department briefing at the AIDS conference in Brazil, after a map mislabelled several African nations.
The erroneous map appeared during a State Department presentation concerning Washington’s support for HIV programmes at the event held on Sunday.
A spokesperson said the department took "full work for the disorder and misrepresentation it caused for attendees, including our African partners".
The mistake was described by the spokesperson as "an unfortunate error" caused when a team member "hurriedly altered" the presentation platform ahead of the event.
The error came to light after HIV/AIDS expert Emily Bass shared a photograph of the slide on her Substack newsletter, prompting widespread criticism online.
An investigation by Reuters found the map bore an artificial‑quality watermark indicating it had been generated with AI tools.
Three of the six African countries highlighted—Nigeria, Mozambique and Ivory Coast—were incorrectly positioned. Malawi and Uganda appeared roughly in the correct location but were misshapen, while Cameroon was named but not linked to any territory on the graphic.
OpenAI said it was investigating the report, Reuters noted.
The briefing was delivered by a senior US official overseeing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the administration’s flagship global HIV initiative.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat and ranking member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote on X: "What an embarrassment. This is what happens erstwhile [the State Department] fires vocation experts and tries to person AI behaviour diplomacy,"
Cameron Hudson, a former State Department official, called the mistake "stupid and embarrassing", saying it was the effect of having "too inferior unit performing enactment under-supervised".
The 26th International AIDS Conference opened this week in Rio de Janeiro against the backdrop of steep US cuts to overseas assistance introduced after President Donald Trump’s return to the White House last year.
Despite the controversy, the State Department said discussions at the conference had been "substantive and constructive" and reaffirmed its commitment to combating HIV/AIDS in Africa and elsewhere.
The incident occurs as the Trump administration reshapes global health assistance following sharp reductions in overseas aid last year.
While PEPFAR’s core life‑saving HIV treatment programmes have largely resumed, Washington is scaling back spending in other areas such as prevention and disease surveillance, and also plans to phase out the programme in South Africa.
Sincity Press Staff
1 hour ago 2 min read
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English (US)·