Hero Awards Launches AI-Driven Protocol to Democratize UN Sustainable Development Goal Implementation

The Hero Awards has introduced a structured methodology that enables everyday individuals to translate the United Nations' 169 Sustainable Development Goal targets into actionable plans using a sequenced approach with seven different artificial intelligence systems. According to Chief Information Officer John Toomey, this new pathway is designed for changemakers with limited time who want to create maximum impact on planetary challenges.

Since 2019, The Hero Awards has recognized individuals and teams driving progress toward the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. With the emergence of modern generative AI, the organization developed a protocol to make heroism more practical, accessible, and predictable. Education Director Amy Chang explained that the average participant can complete the process in approximately two to three hours, producing multiple outputs including a GPT listed on OpenAI's GPT store, a continuously refreshed Innovation Engine built with Google's NotebookLM, and starting in 2026, a collaboration tool based in Microsoft Loop.

Sustainability Director Savithri Patel noted the absence of clear pathways for everyday heroes to earn recognition for sustained work on global challenges. "We created a process that blends human judgment with AI—moving ideas across multiple models to make them more grounded, more practical, and less vulnerable to hallucinations," Patel said. The organization views this approach as helping participants "Be the Singularity"—epitomizing the moment when AI begins to outperform human intelligence.

The workflow begins by priming each AI with heavily tested prompts to ensure focus on producing actionable, real-world solutions. Each model builds on the previous model's work, adding detail, clarity, and verification checks. The current highest-performing sequence includes Meta.ai, Claude.ai, Copilot.microsoft.com, Gemini.google.com, Perplexity.ai, Deepseek.com, and ChatGPT (v.5.2). In practice, a single SDG target is presented to the first model, with outputs sequentially passed through all seven systems to strengthen and stress-test proposals.

Completed solutions are archived on The Hero Awards' Academia.edu page for others to study, reuse, and improve. Winners receive recognition across the organization's communication channels and gain the ability to confer the honor on others who complete the protocol. The organization reports that the process improves both outcomes and participant skills, as iterating across seven AI models with different strengths and blind spots accelerates analytical and creative abilities.

In a 2022 preliminary project, for every 100 completed procedures, 29 participants produced content that gained traction in traditional media, 14 were quoted in academic or professional journals, 7 started NGOs or non-profits associated with their chosen target, and 5 founded startups. The organization has identified Substack creators as a significant source for new participants in 2025. Chang described the initiative as democratizing planetary stewardship and human flourishing through enjoyable work using familiar AI tools that helps people develop a global mindset making change feel both achievable and personally meaningful. The UN Global Indicator Framework provides context for measuring progress toward these goals at https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/indicators-list/.