Here's some bittersweet news for anyone eagerly anticipating Apple's next big push into AI. According to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, Apple has developed its own "ChatGPT-like iPhone app" to help prepare for the long-delayed AI overhaul of Siri — which is due next year. The bad news is that we won't be using it anytime soon.
Gurman claims that Apple's AI division is using the new app, dubbed "Veritas," to "quickly evaluate new features for Siri." Features that include searching personal data, like songs and emails, or performing in-app actions like photo editing.
Apparently, Veritas resembles other popular chatbots and is designed to let users keep the conversations running across multiple topics at once. The AI also includes the ability to save and refer to past conversations, remember earlier questions and handle various exchanges with the users.
Sadly, this is all meant for internal use, and there aren't any plans to release the app to the public.
Instead, we've been hearing reports about Apple's discussions with Google to deploy a custom Large Language Model (LLM) onto the iPhone. It's not been clear how similar this model will be to Google's Gemini AI, but considering Apple's focus on privacy, it's likely that whatever models Google comes up with will have to play nice with Apple's Private Cloud Compute system.
So what is the point in keeping Veritas as an internal system? The goal with this app is to take "till-in-progress" technology Apple is developing for the new Siri and put it in a format that employees can test more easily. Gurman notes that it also allows Apple to get feedback on how valuable having its own chatbot might be.
And while we'd rather see Apple release new AI technology publicly, this suggests that the company is making progress. The Siri relaunch was supposed to have happened months ago, but Apple reportedly started facing serious problems behind the scenes. Not only did that lead to delays, but it also seemingly put other AI development on hold. That would explain the lack of serious AI features on iPhone 17 and in iOS 26 at any rate.
Hopefully, the Veritas app can help progress get back on track and ensure the new Siri arrives sooner rather than later. Because if there are any more delays, Apple risks falling even further behind in the AI race than it already is. At the moment, the upgraded Siri is expected to launch at some point in early 2026.
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