Kevin Knight's fascination with language has driven his groundbreaking work in natural language processing, transforming the way we communicate. Knight and his collaborators at ISI developed the early technologies that would become the precursors to Google Translate, Bing Translator, and SDL Language Weaver. Their efforts in statistical machine translation turned a nascent field into a thriving industry, enabling billions of words to be translated daily across the globe. 

But Knight's contributions don't stop there. His work extends to deciphering ancient manuscripts, bridging the past and present by unlocking historical texts through cutting-edge AI. By teaching computers to understand and translate languages, Knight has not only revolutionized modern communication but also paved the way for future advancements in how we interact with technology and preserve our cultural heritage.