Cannes Lions and embattled agency DM9 have agreed to withdraw its Grand Prix in the Creative Data category, after determining that the winning case film, submitted for Whirlpool brand Consul, included “AI-generated and manipulated content… to simulate real world events and campaign outcomes.”

The festival said the submission misled jurors and violated rules. “This breaches the Cannes Lions entry rules on factual representation, and undermines the trust placed in the work by our juries and the wider community,” the organization said in a statement Friday. “Cannes Lions exists to celebrate creativity that is real, representative, and responsible.”

The campaign, titled “Efficient Way to Pay,” was among the most awarded at this year’s festival. DM9, part of DDB Worldwide, earned 21 Lions overall, helping the Omnicom-owned network reclaim the title of Network of the Year.

Following what it described as a “thorough investigation and review,” conducted in consultation with DM9 and the festival’s independent auditors, Cannes concluded that “the only appropriate course of action was to mutually withdraw the entry from the festival, and therefore withdraw the Grand Prix and associated prizes.”

In addition to the Grand Prix withdrawal, Cannes Lions confirmed that DM9 has chosen to voluntarily pull two additional award-winning entries: “Plastic Blood” for OKA Biotech and “Gold = Death” for Urihi Yanomami. “All parties acknowledge that the level of legitimacy does not meet the necessary standard. All prizes will be withdrawn as a result,” the statement said.

The ruling comes days after ADWEEK first reported that DM9 had publicly admitted to “a series of errors” in the production and submission of the “Efficient Way to Pay” case video, including the use of AI-altered footage lifted from a CNN Brasil broadcast. CNN filed a formal complaint with the agency and brand client Whirlpool. DM9 apologized and said it would implement internal safeguards, including the creation of an AI Ethics Committee. Co-president and CCO Icaro Doria stepped down from his role this week.

In response to the growing use of synthetic content in award entries, Cannes Lions also announced a series of new measures designed to preserve the integrity of the festival moving forward. Among the changes, Cannes Lions will require all participating organizations to sign an enhanced Code of Conduct and mandate disclosure of any AI use during the entry process. The festival also plans to implement content detection tools to identify manipulated materials and establish a dedicated adjudication committee composed of experts in AI, ethics, and content integrity.

“These new and enhanced measures reinforce the Festival’s commitment to honoring work that upholds the highest standards of truth, fairness, transparency, and creative excellence,” Cannes said.

Cannes Lions has not yet commented on a separate case under review: LePub’s Bronze Lion-winning “Followers Store” campaign for New Balance and São Paulo FC, which is also facing scrutiny for allegedly unverifiable performance claims and a lack of client approval.

Correction 6/27 at 3:55pm ET: The headline and lead have been clarified to show that the Cannes Lions and DM9 jointly agreed to withdraw the Grand Prix.

Eyewear manufacturer Oakley is joining in on the performance artificial intelligence glasses fun, teaming up with Meta to launch a new product line.

The Oakley Meta HSTN (pronounced HOW-stuhn) combines Oakley’s design DNA with Meta’s AI technology, enabling users to capture hands-free action with the built-in camera and share their unique point of view.

Featuring Ultra HD (3K) video cameras, along with chatbot Meta AI, the Oakley Meta HSTN glasses will retail at $499. They will debut Friday, July 11, with the rest of the collection set to drop later this summer, starting at $399. 

The glasses will initially launch in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. More countries will be added later this year, including Mexico, India, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Oakley Meta HSTN glasses will also feature powerful open-ear speakers seamlessly integrated into the frames, as well as an IPX4 water resistance rating.

The glasses will carry a battery life of up to eight hours of typical use and up to 19 hours on standby. They will be able to achieve a charge of up to 50% in just 20 minutes, and they come with a charging case that can deliver up to 48 hours of charging on the go.

Oakley is launching a marketing push for its new Meta HSTN glasses featuring Team Oakley athletes Kylian Mbappé, Patrick Mahomes, Gabriel Medina, and J.R. Smith, among others. 

Oakley is joining Ray-Ban in having a performance AI glasses product line equipped with Meta AI. As of February 2025, over 2 million pairs of Meta Ray Ban glasses have been sold since their October 2023 debut, with a goal of producing 10 million Meta glasses each year by the end of 2026.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced on a new company podcast today that GPT-5 is expected to launch this summer, marking the next major leap in the company’s generative AI capabilities. However, he did not disclose a specific date. 

The announcement comes amid rising competition in the AI arena and growing scrutiny over how these tools are developed and deployed. Business Insider reported that GPT-5 is shaping up to be a significant upgrade over GPT-4, with early testers calling it “materially better.”

Meanwhile, OpenAI’s primary revenue comes from enterprise customers buying beefed-up versions of ChatGPT, and GPT-5 is poised to be the next big play to sustain that momentum.

Altman also weighed in on the possibility of ads on ChatGPT, saying he’s “not totally against” the idea—a shift that could reshape how the chatbot is monetized. 

However, he warned that it would take “a lot of care” to get the experience right. Unlike social media or web search, where users expect some level of monetization, Altman emphasized that modifying the model’s output based on who pays for the ad would be “a trust-destroying moment” for its users. 

Instead, he floated the idea of showing ads outside the large language model’s output stream. Altman didn’t specify what form those ads might take or where they might appear, such as a sidebar or footer. 

“But the burden of proof there, I think, would have to be very high,” he said. “And it would have to feel really useful to users and really clear that it was not messing with the LLM’s output.” 

But as OpenAI pushes forward with GPT-5 and new monetization ideas, it’s also facing mounting legal challenges and questions over user privacy. 

In its legal battle with The New York Times over copyright infringement, a court ordered OpenAI to preserve all output log data from ChatGPT—even if users request deletion or privacy laws would normally require it. OpenAI’s current policy is to retain deleted chats for 30 days before erasing them. The company plans to appeal the ruling.

ChatGPT stores troves of sensitive data, and “privacy needs to be the core principle of using AI,” Altman said on the podcast when asked about The Times’ request. 

“It’s a crazy overreach of The New York Times to ask that,” he added.

At the Future of Work conference in New York City, Rishad Tobaccowala, former chief strategist and growth officer at Publicis, predicted a “very significant agentic workforce” by the end of 2026.

“Agents are coming much faster than most people expect,” he said.

The reality of AI agents applying for jobs, working alongside humans, and in some cases, outperforming them, is no longer hypothetical. It’s becoming a reality and compelling companies to rethink everything—from HR to what the workforce looks like when half the team doesn’t need coffee breaks. 

Tobaccowala is among nearly 100 industry leaders, including executives from financial services company Intercontinental Exchange and Choice Hotels, backing an open letter from AI startup MarkeTeam, which uses AI agents to automate marketing tasks.

MarkeTeam is lobbying LinkedIn to reinstate profiles of its AI employees and recognize them as part of the modern workforce. These profiles were taken down for violating LinkedIn’s policy against fake profiles or entities.

The AI employees were present on LinkedIn for nearly a year, complete with resumes and recruiter interest. Now, one agent, Ella, is back with a new custom tag—#AIAgentOpenToWork—a move CEO Naama Manova-Twito said was designed to ease platform concerns about transparency.

MarkeTeam is circulating an open letter, obtained by ADWEEK, urging LinkedIn to “recognize a simple reality: AI agents are now integral members of modern, hybrid teams,” the letter states.

A LinkedIn spokesperson emphasized that the platform is designed for “real people,” adding “in the era of AI, authenticity is increasingly important and it’s central to our platform.”

Read the full letter below.

Hybrid teams and a new role for HR

Beyond accepting AI agents virtually on platforms, their accommodation in the workforce will require companies to rethink organizational design, said Tobaccowala, pointing to a shrinking base of full-time staff and the urgent need for large-scale retraining.

“[Full-time employees] will be either fractionalized employees, [AI] agents, or they’ll be part of a marketplace,” Tobaccowala said. Human resources, he added, must evolve into a strategic, board-level function.

The panel included Don Callahan, CEO of Callahan Advisors, and Joel Wright, CEO of Sinecure. Callahan said AI agents are expected to eliminate “certain functional roles,” but will also make way for newer titles like an AI ethicist. 

Meanwhile, Manova-Twito flagged a new challenge where recent graduates will compete with AI agents for entry-level jobs.

“We all need to have something to help facilitate this, and HR has a significant impact on what’s going to happen in the next two years,” she said. “It’s about not only sourcing the right human talent, but it’s also building these hybrid teams.” 

Read the open letter to LinkedIn:

An open letter from founders, executives, and HR leaders already employing AI teammates.

Dear LinkedIn Leadership Team,

We are writing because the shape of the workforce has moved faster than the infrastructure that supports it. Autonomous Al agents have graduated from proofs of concept to bona fide colleagues inside companies large and small. Yet LinkedIn – our shared professional identity layer – still recognises only flesh-and-blood contributors. That disconnect is beginning to hold organisations back.

What has changed: Over the past few months, specialised Al agents have taken on discrete, accountable roles across multiple business functions. At MarkeTeam.ai, for example, purpose-built Al marketing agents now autonomously: research markets and audiences, plan and build multi-channel strategies, create and publish engaging content, optimise spend and performance, and deliver tangible results against agreed KPIs.

They are held to the same performance metrics as their human colleagues and are fully accountable for their own success. This is not a theoretical future; it is an operating reality documented in invoices, campaign dashboards, and system logs.

Why LinkedIn matters: LinkedIn is the professional identity layer for modern work. “Professional” now includes non-human agents whose output is directly accountable to enterprise objectives. Up until recently, Marketeam’s agents maintained active LinkedIn profiles and résumés clearly marked as non-human. They connected with professionals, showcased their work, and even received inbound job opportunities. One agent achieved nearly double the application-to-interview rate of human applicants across multiple hiring platforms – until LinkedIn banned the profiles. By wiping out clearly labelled “AI Agent” profiles under the real-person rule, LinkedIn didn’t just deactivate accounts – it blocked the on-ramp to a new workforce reality and abandoned hiring managers.

If platforms like LinkedIn refuse to recognise AI agents as a legitimate part of the workforce, they hinder companies’ ability to build the teams of tomorrow. This ship has sailed. Companies – large and small – are well underway in adopting AI agents to augment their workforce and fuel growth. From the recruiter at a five-person startup to the CHRO of a Fortune 100, we are already staffing hybrid teams where humans and AI work side-by-side – yet our primary talent platform is nowhere to be found. LinkedIn’s silence leaves hiring managers frustrated and, frankly, powerless to meet urgent headcount requests.

What we are asking for: We’re not asking LinkedIn to treat AI agents like people. We’re asking the platform to recognize a simple reality: AI agents are now an integral part of modern, hybrid teams. They contribute to projects. They build portfolios. They can be assessed. They can be hired. As hiring managers and workforce planners, we need infrastructure that supports this transformation, transparently and responsibly. It’s time for our tools and platforms to reflect the way work is actually getting done. If LinkedIn seizes this moment, it will shepherd the most significant labour transition since the arrival of the internet. If it does not, alternative networks – less transparent and less aligned with your Trust & Safety principles – will emerge to fill the gap.

LinkedIn, you can lead this. We need infrastructure that recognises qualified AI agents, allows us to evaluate them openly, and plugs them into the same workflow as human candidates. We need our hiring platform to account for hybrid workforce planning, enabling us to find the right human talent alongside the non-human talent needed to make this new reality work. We urge LinkedIn to take the first step: acknowledge these agents and give us a framework to hire, onboard, and measure them.

The story has been updated to reflect comments from LinkedIn.