Paolo Carozza
Law School
Professor of Law; Concurrent Professor of Political Science
- Comparative Constitutional Law
- Human Rights Law
- Catholic Social Teaching
- Global freedom of expression and social media
- Law & Technology
Carozza’s Latest News
Carozza in the News
National Catholic Register
Can Pope Leo Help Stop the ‘AI Arms Race’?
June 16, 2026
“[The encyclical] is saying that everybody in the human family has a stake in this, everybody is affected by it, and therefore it’s really important that everybody has a chance to participate in constructing their future together,” said Paolo Carozza, an expert in international law at Notre Dame Law School and co-chairman of Meta’s Oversight Board. “Right now, it looks very poor,” said Carozza of the chances of reaching meaningful international agreements on AI.
National Catholic Register
Human Dignity and Human Frailty at the Heart of ‘Magnifica Humanitas’
June 16, 2026
Paolo Carozza is a law professor at the University of Notre Dame. He also serves as a co-chair of the Oversight Board, an independent expert body created by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
EWTN
Educators weigh benefits and challenges of AI in the classroom
June 08, 2026
Similarly, Notre Dame Law School professor and Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences member Paolo Carozza said we must ensure technology “is orienting us towards the fundamental understanding of reality, including the reality of ourselves and what weʼre made for or not,” Carozza told EWTN News.
Deseret News
How Catholics reacted to Pope Leo’s teachings on AI
June 05, 2026
“From here on, I don’t think anyone will be able to speak meaningfully about the future of humanity in the age of AI without coming to terms with this document and taking it seriously,” Notre Dame Law School professor Paolo Carozza said in a statement. “While it is very direct about the many dangers already arising out of algorithmic technologies, it is decidedly not an anti-technology document. The real question is not whether AI is good or bad, but whether the ways we develop and deploy the technology help individuals and communities become more humane, just and participatory, or whether instead they foster exclusion, control and inequality.”
The Tablet
View from Rome
June 04, 2026
Professor Paolo Carozza of the University of Notre Dame, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences who chairs the Meta Oversight Board, observes that the collapsing attention economy makes it hard to recognise coherence. The encyclical’s unique contribution to the digital revolution is in the application of general principles to the atomised crises that obsess its partisans. “I have yet to encounter anyone who does not have a sincere desire to be doing good,” Carozza tells me of his dealings with Silicon Valley.
DSR Network
AI, Energy and Climate: The Pope's Powerful Message on AI
Audio
June 03, 2026
Pope Leo sent some strong messages about AI in his 42,000-word essay last week. Is the Pope anti-AI? What risks and benefits of AI does the Pope highlight? What impact will the Pope's essay have, including with big tech companies? Join host David Sandalow as he explores these questions and more with Paolo Carozza, a Professor of Law at Notre Dame and Co-Chair of the Meta Oversight Board.
OSV News
Pope Leo’s new encyclical offers hope, call to shared moral discernment, say experts
June 02, 2026
The encyclical is “a defining document of our era,” Paolo G. Carozza, professor of law and political science at the University of Notre Dame, told OSV News. Carozza said “even the criticisms” of the text he had seen in places “show that you can’t talk about the ethics of AI, as of today, without taking this document into account. It’s that important."Pope Leo himself is “one of the only coherent moral voices on the global stage at this point in an era where that’s desperately needed,” said Carozza.
The Guardian
Anthropic’s alliance with pope on AI harms: all in good faith or ‘Vatican-washing?
June 01, 2026
There’s a risk that Anthropic’s engagement with the Vatican could remain superficial and lead to a “feelgood” discourse without critical self-examination, for both sides, says Paolo Carozza, a law professor at Notre Dame law school and co-chair of the Meta Oversight Board. “This is Anthropic’s brand, right? That’s how they’re distinguishing themselves, by aligning themselves with the more safety and responsibility oriented voices. There’s something to be gained by saying, ‘Look, even the pope is willing to talk to us because of [our pro-safety brand]. Google wasn’t on the stage and OpenAI wasn’t on the stage,’” Carozza says.
USA Today
'Profound, prophetic': Pope Leo warns of AI's dehumanizing effects
June 01, 2026
Paolo Carozza, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, called the document “profound and prophetic.” By characterizing ideas such as the dignity of work, the limits of automation and the use of AI in warfare not as abstractions but necessary considerations for anyone developing AI technology, he said, the pope’s treatise, he said, “will prove to be a defining document for our era.”
EWTN
‘A Hopeful Document’: Catholic Thinkers on AI Assess ‘Magnifica Humanitas’
May 28, 2026
Paolo Carozza, a Notre Dame law professor and human rights expert who co-chairs Meta’s Oversight Board, which serves as in independent check on the tech giant’s content moderation decisions, similarly appraised Magnifica Humanitas as “not an anti-technology document,” but rather one which “calls on each of us individually to examine our own personal relationship to the technological project that is transforming the world around us.” Carozza said he sees the real crux of the encyclical as not adjudicating whether AI as such is good or bad, but rather imploring all people — especially those with power over the ways AI is developed and deployed — to consider whether it helps individuals and communities become more humane, just and participatory, or whether instead it fosters exclusion, control and inequality.
The Globe & Mail (Canada)
The Pope stirs hope for an AI backlash
May 28, 2026
Paolo Carozza, a Notre Dame Law School professor and co-chair of the Meta Oversight Board, said of the encyclical that “I am convinced that this will prove to be a defining document for our era, a profound and prophetic document."
What's Trending
Pope Leo XIV Wrote a 42000 Word Manifesto Declaring War on AI
May 28, 2026
“I am convinced that this will prove to be a defining document for our era, a profound and prophetic document,” said Paolo Carozza, a Notre Dame law professor and chair of the Meta oversight board.
CNBC
Trump officials split over Pope Leo’s AI warning as Vatican feud enters new front
May 27, 2026
“The back-and-forth dialogue between the pope and the titans of industry has rarely, if ever, been seen before,” said Paolo Carozza, a University of Notre Dame law professor, co-chair of Meta’sOversight Board and a Pope Francis-nominated member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. “It is a positive sign for many people.”
National Catholic Reporter
Catholic leaders weigh in on pope's AI encyclical, say it will take time to fully unpack
May 27, 2026
"I am convinced that this will prove to be a defining document for our era, a profound and prophetic document," said Notre Dame Law School professor Paolo Carozza, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences who studies the intersection of technology and Catholic social thought. Holy Cross Fr. Robert Dowd, president of the University of Notre Dame, said in a prepared statement that it was "a deliberate choice" the pope signed his new encyclical on the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII's landmark 1891 letter that established the modern foundation for Catholic social teaching.
USA Today
I asked AI about Pope Leo XIV's criticism and it is big mad
Video
May 27, 2026
Paolo Carozza, a Notre Dame Law School professor and chair of the Meta Oversight Board, told The Associated Press: “I am convinced that this will prove to be a defining document for our era, a profound and prophetic document. Pope Leo is offering a clear, comprehensive and coherent voice urging us to take responsibility for constructing a world in which technology will serve humans rather than degrade them.”
TechCrunch
The pope’s AI encyclical isn’t really about AI
May 26, 2026
Notre Dame Law School professor Paolo Carozza, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and chair of the Meta Oversight Board, told TechCrunch that AI-driven misinformation and deepfakes have “corroded our capacity to recognize what’s true and what’s not true, and that really has consequences for democratic politics.” The tech industry’s practice of “harvesting and manipulating” human data, he added, poses “fundamental challenges to cognitive freedom.”
Bitcoin World
The Pope’s AI Encyclical Isn’t Really About AI — It’s About Power
May 26, 2026
Notre Dame Law School professor Paolo Carozza, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and chair of the Meta Oversight Board, told Bitcoin World that AI-driven misinformation and deepfakes have “corroded our capacity to recognize what’s true and what’s not true, and that really has consequences for democratic politics.” The tech industry’s practice of “harvesting and manipulating” human data, he added, poses “fundamental challenges to cognitive freedom.”
Beliefnet
Pope Leo XIV Warns AI Could Threaten Humanity Without Strong Moral Limits
May 26, 2026
Paolo Carozza, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame and chair of Meta’s oversight board, called the document “profound and prophetic.”
AI Insider
Pope Leo XIV’s First Encyclical Warns AI Power Concentration Threatens Democracy and Human Dignity
May 26, 2026
Notre Dame Law professor Paolo Carozza, chair of the Meta Oversight Board, told TechCrunch that AI-driven misinformation had corroded society’s capacity to distinguish truth, with serious consequences for democratic politics.
EWTN
What to Expect from Pope Leo XIV’s First Encyclical on AI
Video
May 26, 2026
Paolo Carozza, Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, joins to discuss what primary moral or ethical concerns he believes Pope Leo wants to address with this encyclical on artificial intelligence.
Newsweek
Pope Leo XIV’s AI Encyclical: Can Holy Father Influence Regulations?
May 26, 2026
Paolo Carozza, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, told Newsweek that Pope Leo will be filling a “vacuum” of moral leadership on AI. While many people agree that this is a period of social transformation, he may offer a more coherent moral way of reflecting on that, he added.
CNN
CNN Newsroom - pope ai encyclical
Video
May 26, 2026
Let's discuss with Paolo Carozza, professor of law at the university of notre dame and faculty fellow at notre dame's religious liberty initiative. Thanks so much for being with me, sir, I appreciate it. You have called this a defining document for our era. That is a massive statement.
CNN
‘We cannot consider AI to be morally neutral’: In warning to world, Pope Leo calls for regulation of artificial intelligence
Video
May 26, 2026
On "Inside Politics," Audie Cornish talks to Notre Dame law professor Paolo Carozza about Pope Leo's encyclical warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence. Carozza, who was nominated by Pope Francis to join the Pontifical Academy of Social Science, tells Cornish, "What he's really concerned about is what he calls a culture of power. What he's calling for is attention to the dignity of every human person."
The Washington Post
Pope elevates AI ethics to a religious imperative with first encyclical
May 26, 2026
“It makes me nervous,” Paolo Carozza, a law professor at the Catholic university Notre Dame who works on ethical issues as chair of the Meta Oversight Board, said of a partnership that could whitewash an industry long resistant to oversight. “I have no doubt the frontier AI companies would love to co-opt religious communities to bring an ethical imprimatur to their work.”
Associated Press
Pope calls for robust regulation of AI in manifesto
May 26, 2026
“I am convinced that this will prove to be a defining document for our era, a profound and prophetic document,” said Paolo Carozza, law professor at Notre Dame Law School and chair of the Meta oversight board. “Pope Leo is offering a clear, comprehensive, and coherent voice urging us to take responsibility for constructing a world in which technology will serve humans rather than degrade them,” he said.
Inside Indiana Business
Carozza named to Meta Oversight Board
June 09, 2022
Paolo Carozza, professor of law and concurrent professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, has been added as a member of the Oversight Board for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, among the most valuable firms in the world with the social media and messaging apps Instagram and WhatsApp among its properties.