Tech companies are known to listen in on private conversation via its smart speakers in order to'improve voice-recognition features.' Now that millions of people are currently working home due to the coronavirus outbreak, employers are urging their stuff to power down the technology in order to keep it from listening to confidential phone calls. Mishcon de Reya LLP, the UK law firm that advised Princess Diana on her divorce, advised staff to mute or shut off listening devices like Amazon's Alexa or Google's voice assistant when they talk about client matters at home, according to a partner at the firm. Video products such as Ring and baby monitors are also on the list of devices to be away of while working from home, as first reported on by Bloomberg. Mishcon de Reya LLP, the UK law firm that advised Princess Diana on her divorce, advised staff to mute or shut off listening devices like Amazon's Alexa or Google's voice assistant when they talk about client matters at home Mishcon de Reya partner Joe Hancock, who also heads the firm's cybersecurity efforts, told Bloombger: 'Perhaps we're being slightly paranoid but we need to have a lot of trust in these organizations and these devices.' 'We'd rather not take those risks.'

Why do you think technologies such as AI and predictive coding are apparently gaining momentum in term of their uptake in the UK legal market? First and foremost, the legal market isn't an isolated bubble. There is so much happening right now in the world at large about AI and cognitive computing that the legal market simply can't be immune. Our behaviours in the workplace are driven (and increasingly so) by our experiences in the rest of our lives, so when there's a constant stream of mainstream news about AI, it's inevitable that it must impact the legal market. Add into the mix a number of other legal market factors – the increasing price sensitivity of clients, the explosion in data, the long-standing feeling that there must be a better way to do repetitive knowledge tasks than simply adding more junior lawyers – and you've got the perfect conditions for these technologies to take hold.