US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global AIDS conference

essentialsaltes · 2026-07-30T14:19:20-0500

A Reuters analysis found the image of the map included ⁠in the presentation contained an artificial intelligence watermark that signals it was made with OpenAI tools. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

The state ‌department said it took “full responsibility” ‌for the confusion caused and that the map had been produced by a team member who hastily changed ‌the slide deck before the event.

The speaker at the conference was Jeff Graham, the ⁠top US health envoy who oversees the initiative known as the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, or Pepfar. He did not reply to requests for comment.

durangodawood · 2026-07-30T15:09:36-0500

Cote D'Ivoire has no cote!

essentialsaltes · 2026-07-30T15:12:43-0500

durangodawood said:
Cote D'Ivoire has no cote!

Maybe this is why all the malaria and AIDS funding stopped. It got lost in the mail with the wrong address.

NxNW · 2026-07-30T15:13:05-0500

Republicans seem to have trouble with Africa.

Report: Palin Didn't Know Africa Is A Continent : News & Views : NPR https://share.google/5tt8Vhsr8de8pg3Ay

durangodawood · 2026-07-30T15:13:56-0500

I admit I did have to look up where Eswatini is when it was in the news recently for hosting Taiwan.

durangodawood · 2026-07-30T15:16:12-0500

Poor Cameroon. It has no land! Perhaps thats why it only deserves a measly 3 awards.

essentialsaltes · 2026-07-30T15:19:00-0500

durangodawood said:
I admit I did have to look up where Eswatini is when it was in the news recently for hosting Taiwan.

(aka Swaziland (until 2018 (I had to look it up also)))

But then you don't work for the State Department (I assume).

durangodawood · 2026-07-30T15:30:39-0500

essentialsaltes said:
(aka Swaziland (until 2018 (I had to look it up also)))

But then you don't work for the State Department (I assume).

No I dont work there. But I do know without looking it up that most of those countries are wildly misplaced.

Honestly it does seem like the Trump admin has to draw from a lot of dim bulb MAGA ideologues to ensure top to bottom loyalty in various departments.

HantsUK · 2026-07-30T16:55:46-0500

Only 6 countries were wrongly identified (and with wrong shapes), out of 54 nations (including a couple islands). Or 55 if Western Sahara is considered a country separate from Morocco. So, 89% of countries were not mis-identified.

Or perhaps it's a secrete ploy by some African countries to give themselves protection incase Trump decides to launch an offensive for some reason (there could be many reasons in the President's mind).

But before getting too smug, how many African countries can you locate?

In other news, some of the American delegation are now stuck in the United Arab Emirates after an assistant used an AI bot to book their return flights. The assistant had thought that "UAE" was a typo.

(Like AI results, some of this may be made up)

7thKeeper · 2026-07-30T17:00:55-0500

NxNW said:
Republicans seem to have trouble with Africa.

Report: Palin Didn't Know Africa Is A Continent : News & Views : NPR https://share.google/5tt8Vhsr8de8pg3Ay

Pommer · 2026-07-30T17:40:16-0500

HantsUK said:
But before getting too smug, how many African countries can you locate?

Not a whole lot, but then my job isn’t at the Department of State of the United States of America.

NxNW · 2026-07-30T17:45:58-0500

Pommer said:
Not a whole lot, but then my job isn’t at the Department of State of the United States of America.

And it's not like it's hard to look these things up on the internets!

durangodawood · 2026-07-30T17:47:54-0500

HantsUK said:
But before getting too smug, how many African countries can you locate?

All the ones I need to before sending out material that makes me or my employer look like idiots. Just look at a proper map first!

That said, I did know right away that this image had most of the ones they named in the wrong place.

Bradskii · 2026-07-30T19:15:52-0500

durangodawood said:
Cote D'Ivoire has no cote!

Yeah, you'd think someone would have told him 'the clue is in the name!' Apart from Uganda, none of the areas noted seem to match the size or shape of any actual country in any case.

Nithavela · 2026-07-30T23:06:15-0500

HantsUK said:
Only 6 countries were wrongly identified (and with wrong shapes), out of 54 nations (including a couple islands).

Only 6 countries were wrongly identified because only 6 attempts at identification were made. I have no doubt that if they had tried to label all countries of africa, they would have gotten many more wrong. Probably every single one with the exception of south africa, which seems to be the only african country the USA cares about these days.

rambot · 2026-07-30T23:09:19-0500

I don't know why anyone would think that America's reputation abroad is not suffering.

You're being represented by the BEST dunderpates.

Aryeh Jay · 2026-07-30T23:21:44-0500

Weren't these the "whole" countries Trump mentioned during the first term?

HantsUK · 2026-07-31T03:46:54-0500

NxNW said:
And it's not like it's hard to look these things up on the internets!

And that's the problem! It was.

The OP quotes the Guardian Newspaper, which says a Reuters analysis indicates that the map was made using OpenAI tools.

A lot (probably most) of what is on the Internet is false or wrong. You need to know enough about the subject so as not to refer to the Internet, or to know which sites and sources are reliable.

AI takes it a stage further. There is no understanding in a LLM (Large Language Model) AI. The results are a super charged statistical analysis giving a probable answer in a nicely worded or pretty picture output. Which might be wrong. Even when all LLM is correct, it can still sometimes make wrong answers. But the LLM may include inaccurate, wrong, or poisoned data. They are based on devouring huge amounts of input from the web.

Bradskii · 2026-07-31T04:18:36-0500

HantsUK said:
And that's the problem! It was.

The OP quotes the Guardian Newspaper, which says a Reuters analysis indicates that the map was made using OpenAI tools.

If you don't know that a country literally called The Ivory Coast should be on the bloody coast, then you really shouldn't be working for the government on relatively important projects. Seriously. You really, really shouldn't.

HantsUK · 2026-07-31T06:47:17-0500

Bradskii said:
If you don't know that a country literally called The Ivory Coast should be on the bloody coast, then you really shouldn't be working for the government on relatively important projects. Seriously. You really, really shouldn't.

Fully agree.

Should the same level of understanding be expected of a President?

An aside: years ago when working for an American company (I was in Hampshire, UK), an American colleague was confused between Austria, where one of our suppliers that he was working with was based, and Australia - he hadn't realise that they were different countries. At least he knew that Australia was not in the Alps, as he had thought it strange that an Australian company made made ski equipment (nothing to do with our work). And he only needed to know that there was a time zone difference, when waiting for answers to emails.

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global AIDS conference

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