Even as he grows older, Microsoft founder Bill Gates still fondly remembers the catalytic computer code he wrote 50 years ago that opened up a new frontier in technology. Although the code that Gates printed out on a teletype machine may look crude compared to what's powering today's artificial intelligence platforms,

The coolest code I’ve ever written.” With these words, Bill Gates introduces a blog post that celebrates Microsoft’s 50th anniversary by looking back on how the company got started. At the bottom of the that blog post,

Founder shares 4K Altair BASIC source ahead of 50th anniversary Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has shared the 1975 source code for Altair BASIC.… The code was the foundation on which Microsoft was built.