CAMBRIDGE, UK, January 15, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The Hero Awards today announced a new option designed for everyday changemakers who can set aside about three hours to produce outsized impact: a guided, seven-step workflow that harnesses the complementary strengths of leading AI systems to convert each of the UN's 169 SDG targets into credible, practical action plans, according to CIO John Toomey. The first participants to test the whole system are successful Substack writers.

Since 2019, The Hero Awards has recognized individuals and teams advancing meaningful progress toward the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With the rise of modern generative AI, the organization set out to build a methodology that makes heroism practical, accessible, and predictable—resulting in the current system.

"We designed a protocol the average participant can complete in about two or three hours," said Education Director Amy Chang. "The outputs include a GPT listed on OpenAI's GPT store, plus a continuously refreshed Innovation Engine built with Google's NotebookLM, and, starting in 2026, a group collaboration and mind mapping tool based in Microsoft Loop. Together, these create 169 robust solution-evolvers that, alongside human judgment, keep generating new approaches to the Goals and Targets over time."

"There hasn't been an obvious route for everyday 'heroes' to earn recognition for sustained work on planetary challenges," said Savithri Patel, Sustainability Director at The Hero Awards. "So 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. In our view, it helps participants 'Be the Singularity'—to epitomize the moment when AI begins to outperform human intelligence."

How the protocol works

The workflow begins by "priming" each AI system with heavily tested prompts to keep it narrowly focused on generating actionable, real-world solutions. From there, each model extends and refines the prior model's work—adding specificity, clarity, and verification steps as the proposal progresses.

The current highest-performing sequence is:

Meta.ai
Claude Code
Copilot.microsoft.com
Gemini.google.com v.3
Perplexity.ai
Deepseek.com
ChatGPT (v.5.2)

In practice, one SDG target is given to Model 1, then that output is handed to Model 2, and so on—until all seven systems have strengthened and stress-tested the plan.

Recognition, archives, and scale

Completed solutions are archived on The Hero Awards' Academia.edu page so others can review, reuse, and improve them. Winners are featured across the organization's social channels, blogs, websites, and press announcements. Awardees also receive a unique privilege: the ability to confer the honor upon others who complete the protocol.

Measurable impact on skills—and outcomes

The Hero Awards says the workflow doesn't just improve the final deliverable; it also develops the participant. "Each AI has its own 'personality,' with different strengths and blind spots," Patel said. "By iterating across all seven models, participants don't just get better results from the tools—they accelerate their own analytical and creative abilities."

In a preliminary project that preceded this initiative, conducted in 2022, the organization found that for every 100 completed procedures, 29 participants produced content that gained traction in a traditional media source, 14 were quoted in an academic or professional journal, 7 launched an NGO or non-profit connected to their chosen Target, and 5 founded a startup. The largest source of new insightful project participants in 2025 was Substack creators.

"We see this as a way to democratize planetary stewardship and human flourishing," Chang added. "It's work—but it's enjoyable work using familiar AI tools—and it helps people develop a global mindset that makes change feel both achievable and personally meaningful."

Learn more:

theheroaward.substack.com

theheroaward.net

https://www.reddit.com/r/WinaHeroAward/

https://www.facebook.com/AImindsetmastery

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14292380/

Nominations & inquiries: [email protected]

UN Global Indicator Framework: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/indicators-list/

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