Toto-Rex's Study CornerAI literacy for the rest of us

UK & EU focus . AI compliance . regulation . the foundations beneath them

Understand AI.
No technical background needed.

"AI steals my job. No more time to sob."

Toto-Rex

A dinosaur lost his job to an algorithm, so he set out to understand it: the rules, the regulations, and just enough of the technology to follow them. Focused on the UK & EU, in plain English, from credible sources. Serious about the learning. Less serious about himself.

Start with the featured word Read the Briefing Read the News

Watch the music video: AI Fired Me

The newsletter is coming soon.

Toto-Rex at an office desk, giving a thumbs up, beside the words AI fired me

Toto-Rex™ - Ep. 1 ‘AI Fired Me.’ (Official Music Video) is now out!

Released on YouTube, 8 October 2026

The song Toto-Rex™ wrote about the day AI made him redundant. Under two minutes, lyrics on screen.

Watch on YouTube

Pressing play loads the video from YouTube. YouTube’s own privacy and cookie rules then apply.

Follow Toto-Rex:YouTube LinkedIn Instagram TikTok

Free one-page outlines for the AI at Work & Hiring Q&As →

Toto-Rex at a laptop showing the word REJECTED

How it started

The algorithm came for the job. So he decided to understand it.

No technical background. No shortcuts. Just one word, one rule, and one small victory at a time, written down so you can walk the same path without the late nights and cold coffee.

This is that path, tidied up and shared. Welcome in.

Part I

Learning: skills, events and talks

01

The AI dictionary

Featured word

One term, in plain English. No maths. No jargon.

Browse the full glossary

Why it matters

The first real skill is knowing what it gets wrong.

Toto-Rex's note: always check what an AI tells you against a proper source. Especially names, numbers, and anything you would put your own name to. It is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy.

Toto-Rex's Study Corner . puzzles desk

The Daily Crossword

8–12 terms from the full glossary, refreshed daily. Ignore spaces and hyphens; letters only. Toto-Rex is watching. Supportively.

Across

Down

02

Toto-Rex originals

Learning, the Toto-Rex way

Short films, songs about AI and honest tool tests: serious learning, carried lightly.

Meet Toto-Rex . two short films

Swipe for more →

Songs about AI . and more to come

Swipe for more →

For real

What the most recent Toto-Rex team has studied

AI Governance (AIGP, IAPP)2025
Privacy Programme Management (CIPM, IAPP)2025
Data Protection (CIPP/E, IAPP)2025
Data Protection, Asia (CIPP/A, IAPP)2025
BCS Practitioner Certificate in Data Protection2025
Microsoft Azure AI Engineer (AI-102)2025
Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900)2025
Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst (PL-300)2025
AWS AI Practitioner (AIF-C01)2025
AWS Machine Learning2025
Google Cloud Generative AI2025
MIT Sloan, AI & Strategy2025

No technical degree here, and no rush: just one exam at a time. All the new AI can feel overwhelming, and a touch of FOMO is only natural, but once you know what you're aiming for, it's far easier to find your way through. Your pace, your path.

“Who says a T-rex can't reach their toes?” Toto-Rex, stretching

03

Events radar

Get in the room where AI happens

AI summits, conferences and seminars from credible hosts: UK, EU and online.

Featured event

London Tech Week

Olympia London & venues citywide . 7 to 11 June 2027 . register interest

If you leave the study corner for one thing in 2027, make it this. London Tech Week is Britain's flagship technology festival and the front door to the whole UK and European tech scene, with founders, investors, ministers and the big AI labs all in one building. Its AI Arena puts the biggest names in global AI on the biggest stage. Ticketing for 2027 is not yet open: register your interest, and check the access terms when they are published.

Why this one, and why you can trust it: Toto-Rex took no fee, no ticket and no commission to name it; this is simply the most useful, most popular and most prestigious AI gathering on the British calendar. Read on for the full radar below.

Official site: register interest

Region:

Sort:

Dates, venues and prices change; check them out yourselves before you go. Anything free is marked.

04

Foundations, study paths & credentials

Learn enough to follow the rules

Just enough of the technology to understand the compliance. No coding required.

Toto-Rex is not paid to feature any of these, and there are no affiliate links on this site. Listings point to each provider's official page; details, prices and dates change, so check before you enrol. Anything free is marked.

05

Watch & listen

Voices from across the AI world

Archive Toto-Rex's Weekly Summary

Talks, interviews and podcasts: builders, regulators, researchers and critics, in their own words.

Clip of the day

The growing backlash to AI's “race to replace” humans

The Economist . YouTube, verified channel . June 2026

Opposition to AI is starting to unite America's political left and right. Physicist Max Tegmark, chair of the Future of Life Institute, makes the case against racing to replace human work; a clear snapshot of the public mood regulators are now answering to.

Watch on The Economist's channel

Conversations worth your time . podcasts & interviews with high-stakes AI players

The two guests every AI panel somehow ends up booking: Somebody, and Nobody.

These are external shows Toto-Rex rates. Links go to each show's official page; specific episodes come and go, so browse for the guest you want.

Part II

Legal: the rules and who makes them

06

Latest News

Hot off the wire, worldwide

Archive Toto-Rex's Weekly Summary

AI news from verified outlets across the globe: UK, EU and US first.

Toto-Rex's monthly clippings . all the news that's fit to bite

The Cretaceous Courier

UK & EU

Wednesday 4 November 2026 . Toto-Rex's Study Corner . price: one fish

Law stated as at 3 November 2026; English prevails.

The latest news

Four UK regulators on AI agents: the law that binds a firm also binds the software acting for its customers

On 30 October 2026 the Competition and Markets Authority, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Information Commissioner's Office and Ofcom published a joint statement, through the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, on personal AI agents: software that compares, books or buys on a person's behalf. Existing consumer, competition, data protection, payments, financial services, cyber security and online safety law already applies, they say, and an agent's autonomy does not reduce the responsibility of the firm that builds or deploys it. They name fraud and scams, personal data shared in ways users did not expect, and misleading recommendations as the risks, and ask firms how customers can tell when an agent acts for them, how authority to act is given, whose commercial interests shape its choices and who answers for its decisions. They will use their powers where they reasonably suspect a breach that risks harm, and invite firms to test products early, including in sandboxes. Guidance, not new law; summarised by Resultsense on 3 November.

Read the joint statement (PDF) →

EU

EU governments agree their position on the data side of the Digital Omnibus

Council of the EU, press release . 21 October 2026

On 21 October the Council agreed its mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament on the Digital Omnibus proposal to simplify the GDPR, the cookie rules and the reporting of cyber and data incidents. Its mandate keeps the rules on cookies and other tracking technologies in the e-privacy directive. The AI Act part of the package was adopted separately in June and has been in force since 27 July. A negotiating position, not law; not in our earlier issues, so dated here.

EU

Five dates before the end of the year

European Commission; ICO; Official Journal . forward dates

9 November: feedback closes on the Commission's draft fining procedure under Articles 75c and 75d. 17 November: the European Apply AI Summit. 20 November: the ICO's call for evidence on agentic AI closes. 2 December: the AI Act's legacy marking duty under Article 50(2) and its two new prohibitions apply. 9 December: the revised Product Liability Directive must be transposed. Proposals, events and binding dates, as marked.

Headlines link to their original outlets; the one-line gists are Toto-Rex's own. Curated 3 November 2026; check the source for the latest.

Last week's issue, 22 to 28 October 2026, in the archive →

07

The AI & Compliance Briefing

The reading that matters, in plain English

Archive Toto-Rex's Weekly Summary

Each item summarised by Toto-Rex, linked to its original source. UK & EU first.

Sort:

Region:

Region:

Region:

How this works: every summary is Toto-Rex's own plain-English take, and each card links out to its original source so you can read it yourself. Nothing is reproduced here. Educational only, not legal advice: for your own situation, ask a suitably qualified professional.

Sources, scope & limitations

Scope. This briefing covers AI compliance, regulation and policy for the United Kingdom and European Union. The events radar (section 03, above) covers the UK, the EU and online events from recognised hosts. It does not try to cover the US, Asia, or sector rules that don't touch AI.

Sources. Credible, verifiable sources only: official texts (EUR-Lex, the ICO), established UK law firms, recognised legal press such as The Law Society Gazette, and peer-reviewed academic journals. Every card links to its original source, whether official text, law-firm commentary or press report.

Depth & timeline. Summaries are short by design: what a thing is and why it matters, then off you go to the original. Current as of 4 November 2026. The EU AI Act's transparency duties applied from 2 August 2026; the Digital Omnibus on AI, in force since 27 July 2026, deferred its high-risk rules to 2 December 2027 for uses listed in Annex III and 2 August 2028 for AI in products covered by Annex I; the UK's automated-decision reforms took effect 5 February 2026.

Limitations. Toto-Rex is a dinosaur, not your lawyer. Summaries are his interpretation, they simplify, and the law moves; implementing acts and further amendments can still shift dates. Check the live source before you act, and take advice for your own circumstances.

Part III

The toolbox

08

The toolbox

Popular AI tools, by what they do

Toto-Rex wants to try them all. Forgive him; he's a dinosaur, picking it up bone by bone.

Grouped by job. Listings link to each tool's official site; none of it is paid placement, and most have a free tier.

Part IV

The corner: Toto-Rex at play

Toto-Rex's Corner

The bit that will not help your career

Everything above is the serious stuff. This is the cherry on top: useless facts, small joys, and a dinosaur with opinions.

He told everyone the "T" in T-Rex stands for Technology. We both know it stands for Tyrannosaurus.

Swipe for more →

Dino of the day

Pachycephalosaurus

A 25 cm dome of solid bone on its head, evolved for headbutting rivals. And, Toto-Rex suspects, recruitment software.

Late Cretaceous . "thick-headed lizard"

Useless fact

200 million years

Roughly how long his lineage survived. He still cannot get a CV past an automated screening filter.

Evolution: undefeated. Recruitment: also undefeated.

Quote of the day

“I'm not behind. I'm pacing myself across 200 million years.”

A healthy attitude to a backlog, or a coping mechanism. Possibly both.

Toto-Rex, on his learning speed

Celebrity crush

Nessie's granddaughter

Of the Scottish Highlands. Also named Nessie, she runs a flourishing marketing company on the shores of Loch Ness, and is entirely out of his league, which, he notes, has never stopped anyone on a dating app.

Takes client calls from the loch. Her grandmother is very proud.

Love–hate relationship

The flying reptiles of South Kensington

Distant relations, technically. They hang about a certain museum looking down on everyone, and they haven't kept up with a single development since the Cretaceous. He visits anyway. Family is family.

They are not even dinosaurs. He has told them this. Repeatedly.

His dating profile

The way to my heartA tidy spreadsheet and properly cited sources.

Looking forSomeone who thinks resitting an exam shows commitment, not a red flag.

09

Before you go

AI may take the job. It cannot take you.

The one thing on this site that is not negotiable.

A machine can draft, sort, total and summarise. It cannot care, keep a promise, own a mistake, or read a room. That part of the work was never in the job description. It was always you.

So learn the tools and mind the rules. Then bring what no model can produce: taste, judgement, kindness, and the nerve to ask the obvious question.

“Whatever the algorithm decides, you've got me, buddy.”

Toto-Rex

“The difference between AI and a person is that a person can feel pain. Then again, what would I know? I’m just a dino boy who eats fish.”

Toto-Rex holding his CV in a row of identical fish-headed candidates — Seven identical CVs. One original. Be the original.

10

Say hello

Write to Toto-Rex

He reads more than he lets on.

He may or may not read this. He is usually studying, or waiting on a delivery. But he reads more than he lets on, and he appreciates you stopping by.

The postbox opens soon.

11

Rex for relax

Fancy a game?

Step away from the syllabus. The dinosaur plays a patient game.

The Cretaceous Chess Club · established a very long time ago

Fancy a Game?

Your move.

Tap to dismiss

Toto-Rex

Plays Black · your opponent

Your move. Take your time: he certainly will.

Countdown of the game03:00

Your name

His captures

Your captures

Play as

His temperament

You play White, so you move first. Click a piece, then a highlighted square. Castling, en passant and promotion all work. He is not paid to lose, and he won't.

12

In your pocket

The Study Corner, going mobile

The real thing is still in the workshop.

The Study Corner is coming to phones. The waitlist opens soon.

Toto-Rex can make mistakes. Everything here is general information, not legal advice: check the primary source, and take advice from a qualified professional before you act.