gistfile1.txt

Template:
<div>
  {{#if category}}
    <div class="item">
      {{categoryBadge category}}
		  <i {{action removeCategory}} class="fa fa-times"></i>
	  </div>
  {{else}}
    <input class='interests-group auto-complete{{unbound view.index}}' type='text'>
  {{/if}}
<div>  

Component:
Discourse.InterestsGroupComponent = Ember.Component.extend({

  layoutName: 'components/preferences/interests-group',

  tags: Em.computed.alias('category.tags'),

  init: function(){
    this._super();
    var self = this;
    self.set('category', this.get('interests')[this.get('index')]);
  },

  didInsertElement: function(){
    var self = this;

    var category = this.get('category');
    var item = Em.A();
    if(category) {
      item.addObject(category);
    }

    self.$('input.auto-complete'+self.get('index')).autocomplete({
      items: item,
      single: true,
      allowAny: false,
      dataSource: function(term){
        return Discourse.Category.list().filter(function(category){
          var regex = new RegExp(term, "i");
          return category.get("name").match(regex) &&
            !_.contains(self.get('blacklist'), category) ;
        });
      },
      onChangeItems: function(items) {
        var link = _.first(items);
        if(!link){
          self.set("category.tags", Em.A());
          self.set("category", undefined);
          return;
        }
        var slug = link.match(/href=['"]\/category\/([^'"]+)/)[1];
        var category = Discourse.Category.findSingleBySlug(slug);

        if(!self.get('category') || category.id != self.get('category').id) {
          self.set("category", category);
          if (!self.get('category')) {
            self.set('category.tags', Em.A());
          }
        }
      },
      template: Discourse.InterestsGroupComponent.templateFunction(),
      transformComplete: function(category) {
        return Discourse.HTML.categoryBadge(category, {allowUncategorized: false});
      }
    });
  },

  actions: {
    removeTag: function(toRm){
      this.get("tags").removeObject(toRm.toString());
    },

    removeCategory: function(){
      this.set('category.tags', Em.A());
      this.set("category", undefined);
    }

  }
});

Discourse.InterestsGroupComponent.reopenClass({
  templateFunction: function(){
    this.compiled = this.compiled || Handlebars.compile("<div class='autocomplete'>" +
      "<ul>" +
      "{{#each options}}" +
      "<li>" +
      "{{categoryLinkRaw this allowUncategorized=false}}" +
      "</li>" +
      "{{/each}}" +
      "</ul>" +
      "</div>");
    return this.compiled;
  }

});