Microsoft turns 50: CEO Satya Nadella recreates company's first-ever product using AI (WATCH)

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella used Copilot to recreate Altair BASIC, the company's very first product, showcasing the revolutionary potential of artificial intelligence. Using a brief video of the presentation, Nadella showcased the power of AI and took a journey down memory lane as part of Microsoft's 50th anniversary festivities.

In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen created Altair BASIC, a programming language specifically made for the Altair 8800 microcomputer. It signalled Microsoft's founding and established the groundwork for its subsequent breakthroughs. In the video, Nadela defined it as a "ingenious combination of technical skill and resourcefulness." The product took Allen and Gates six weeks to design.

Nadella accurately and quickly rebuilt Altair BASIC using Copilot, Microsoft's AI-powered assistant. Copilot, which is renowned for helping engineers by producing code and offering insightful recommendations, turned out to be helpful.

Nadella’s first prompt was “I kind of have an Altair but don’t know how to use it.” The Microsoft CEO then asks Copilot to create an emulator and give a plan. Nadella then gives a few more commands and shows how fast Copilot can execute them.

Copilot recreated the entire procedure in slightly over ten minutes.

Bill Gates shares throwback pictures in a reel

On the 50th anniversary of Microsoft, the co-founder Bill Gates took to Instagram and shared memories of his early days. In the reel, he put together a few old photos, and in the text wrote, “Unfortunately, I'll never feel cool again because this was me in the early Microsoft days." 

Gates, who served as a CEO until 2000, collected these throwback photos which were clicked in a few “awkward photo shoots”, according to Gates.