Oct 9 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms ( META ) said on

Wednesday its artificial intelligence chatbot, Meta AI, will be

available in 21 new markets, as it looks to compete with

OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Technology companies have been trying to attract consumers

to their AI chatbots by introducing new features and making them

more accessible with support for different languages.

Meta AI, which currently has almost 500 million monthly

active users, will be available in the UK, Brazil and more

countries in Latin America and Asia beginning Wednesday, the

social media company said.

The chatbot will also support languages including Arabic,

Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese, Meta said.

After the gradual rollout, the company said the chatbot

would be available in 43 countries and a dozen languages,

keeping it on track to become the most used AI assistant in the

world by the end of 2024.

The latest expansion will not include the new character

voices for the AI chatbot that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had

announced at the company's annual Connect conference. They are

being rolled out on a separate timeline, the company said.

Meta AI will also be made available on Ray-Ban Meta glasses

in the UK and Australia, the company said.