Pinterest wants you to point, snap and shop

If you see a stranger wearing a pair of shoes that you like, a new feature on Pinterest’s mobile app will allow you take a picture of those shoes and — in theory — find them for you.

If this sounds a bit like that chatty friend who tags along on a shopping trip, you have a sense of Pinterest’s enduring if quiet ambitions to take over commerce.

CEO Ben Silbermann announced the new feature, Lens, at one of the company’s South of Market offices Wednesday.

The app uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to recognize objects such as home decor, food and clothing.

Last year, Twitter acquired a London artificial intelligence company called Magic Pony Technology, its third machine-learning acquisition since 2014.

[...] Google bought French company Moodstocks, which develops machine-learning image recognition technology for smartphones.