Apple is allergic to nostalgia. In 2008, when the Macintosh was about to turn 25, I mentioned it to Steve Jobs and he instantly shut down the discussion: “If you look backward in this business, you'll be crushed.” Now that Apple’s 50th anniversary looms, however, the company is begrudgingly engaging in a series of concerts and commemorations. Rather than join the crowded trek down memory lane, I asked Apple to do what Jobs suggested—look forward.

Earlier this month, I sat down with two senior executives to discuss just that. After acknowledging Apple’s uncharacteristic party mode—“this is too special” to ignore, admits Greg Joswiak—the conversation turned to the future. With the Macintosh, Apple mastered the graphical user interface; the iMac positioned the company for the internet boom; and, of course, despite a late start, Apple absolutely owned the mobile era with the iPhone. These products have remained vital—just this month Apple released the buzzy new Macbook Neo, the latest version of a 42-year-old franchise. But now the future belongs to AI—a category where Apple seems to have whiffed so far.

These gentlemen disagree. Apple, they insist, is already at the forefront of the AI revolution: “We were doing AI before we called it AI!” says Joswiak. Ternus argues that even if Apple didn't take the lead in developing AI technology, it would still benefit. “Our products are the best place people will use the existing AI tools.”

The conversation turned to what the iPhone might look like 50 years from now. “It's hard to imagine not,” says Joswiak. “That’s where everybody else struggles. They don’t have an iPhone, and so they’re scrambling for what to do. A lot of what they talk about ends up being accessories for an iPhone.” The answer seemed to be not necessarily. “The iPhone is not going away,” insists Joswiak.

Later in the day I had my greeting with Cook, and immediately asked him about Apple’s next 50 years. He launched into a rhapsodic description of Apple’s people, values, and culture, predicting that no matter what twists lie ahead, those factors will continue to make Apple unique and super successful. “Yes, the technologies of the future will change,” Cook says. “Yes, there will be more products and more categories. All of those things are true, but the things that made Apple Apple will be the same for the next 50 years, and the next 100 and the next 1,000.”