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Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Friday, August 4th. I'm Zoe Thomas for the Wall Street Journal.

Artificial intelligence isn't the only issue that led Hollywood actors and writers to go out on

strike, but it is a big one. And at the heart of the contention with studios is where and how much AI

should be used in the creation of TV and movies. Our media and entertainment editor,

Amal Sharma will join us to explain where each side stands.

We'll start though with some tech earnings. Amazon posted its strongest quarterly profit in a

year and a half yesterday. That was driven by increasing revenue from its core e-commerce

business and cost cuts the company has been making for months. Total revenue rose by nearly 11%

topping $134 billion. Profit for the three months through June was $6.75 billion. Sales

growth from the cloud computing division Amazon Web Services continued to slow however. That

unit accounts for the bulk of the company's profit. Also coming in with strong quarterly earnings,

Airbnb, the vacation booking company posted its most profitable second quarter ever.

Earnings were boosted by high-nightly rates guests were willing to pay,

a sign that steep travel prices are persisting. Its net income increased to $650 million for the quarter,

a 72% increase over last year's second quarter.

Things that were not so rosy for Apple, the iPhone makers said revenue declined for the third

quarter in a row. Sales for the three months through June were down 1.4% from a year ago.

In particular, the company's all-important iPhone sales dropped and came in short of analyst

...