Microsoft founder Bill Gates reflects upon a 50-year-old computer code that reshaped technology

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, it played a critical role in creating Microsoft in April 1975 — a golden anniversary that the Redmond, Washington, company will celebrate on Friday.