NCDMV halts driver’s license services, other transactions over computer glitch

UPDATE: NCDOT reported that as of 3:15 p.m., DMV's connection to its mainframe was restored and staff were able to resume processing transactions in-person, online and at its self-service kiosks.

CHARLOTTE ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) — The North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles was forced to halt all transactions including its driver's license services over a computer glitch Thursday.

MMV operations were severely impacted by NC Department of Information Technology mainframe computer connection issues, officials announced.

After dealing with sporadic connections to the mainframe for the last 24 hours, NCDMV has stopped processing transactions at the state's 112 driver's license offices.

License plate agencies, online services, and self-service kiosks are also affected and have been experiencing sporadic outages, NCDOT explained.

"NCDIT Mainframe issues are impacting state agencies, including NCDMV. Driver license offices across the state have stopped processing transactions. Also affected are license plate agencies and online services including kiosks. NCDIT is working to restore service," NCDOT said.

NCDIT was working with NCDMV and vendors to restore service as soon as possible.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.

"Five years from now, if you're not using [artificial intelligence] in every part of your business, I can look you in the eye and say you're going to be fundamentally disadvantaged," IBM (IBM) CEO Arvind Krishna told Yahoo Finance at the 2024 Invest conference. D.A. Davidson Managing Director Gil Luria joins Morning Brief Hosts Seana Smith and Brad Smith to discuss where IBM stands in the AI era and how businesses are leveraging the emerging tech. IBM has "one of the most valuable businesses in AI right now, which is a consulting business that helps companies figure out what they're going to do with AI," Luria says, adding, "Unfortunately for them, it's a relatively small part of the business. The overall business depends on a lot of other services and hardware and business process outsourcing. So, it may not drive very rapid growth for the overall company, but that consulting business is doing phenomenally well right now because so many companies want to know what to do with AI." The analyst explains that "almost all of AI spend right now is experimental. There's very few real-life products that are adding value and scaling, and that's not too surprising ... This technology is extraordinarily young. The big breakthroughs only happened a couple of years ago. Many of the breakthroughs just happened months ago. And so it takes a lot of time to refine this type of technology and to move it from being a breakthrough in science to being a productive enterprise software product that we can all use and create efficiencies and drive new revenue." Luria notes that AI for enterprise use requires different standards than consumer AI. "This AI technology still has to be refined. Let's not forget that just because we're okay with ChatGPT giving us a wrong answer one out of every five times, that's not the case for enterprise software. The technology has to be at a point where hallucinations are near zero for us to actually implement them in a real environment and use them for mission-critical systems. We are probably two to three years away from that." To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here. This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.

STORY: Ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday (Nov 14) that parent company Unilever has silenced its attempts to express support for Palestinian refugees.The lawsuit is the latest sign of the long-simmering tensions between Ben & Jerry's and Unilever. A rift erupted between the two in 2021 after Ben & Jerry's said it would stop selling its products in the Israeli-occupied West Bank because it was inconsistent with its values.That led some investors to divest Unilever shares.The ice cream maker then sued Unilever for selling its business in Israel to its licensee there, which allowed marketing in the West Bank and Israel to continue. The lawsuit was settled in 2022.In its new lawsuit, Ben & Jerry's says that Unilever has breached the terms of that settlement.The new lawsuit says that Unilever is required to respect and acknowledge Ben & Jerry's independent board's social mission.In response to Reuters' story, Unilever said in an emailed statement that it's "heart goes out to all victims of the tragic events in the Middle East" but that it rejects the claims. Within the lawsuit, Ben & Jerry's said it has tried to call for a ceasefire and support the safe passage of Palestinian refugees to Britain, as well as back student protests at U.S. colleges and advocate for a halt in U.S. military aid to Israel.But that it has been blocked by Unilever.Ben & Jerry's has positioned itself as socially conscious since Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield founded the company in 1978. It kept that mission after Unilever acquired it in 2000.In March, Unilever said it will spin off its ice cream business, including Ben & Jerry's, by the end of 2025 to simplify its holdings.