What happened to Yahoo's $10M alliance with CMU, and how it could help AI restore our humanity

But have you met Sara? Sure, she can do basic tasks, like help you find a movie that you might like to watch, or match you with someone you should meet at an event. But behind the scenes, she's also watching your expressions, assessing your emotions, determining the strength of your budding relationship, and adjusting her approach to form a lasting bond. Sara is actually "SARA," the Socially Aware Robot Assistant, a prototype virtual assistant created by Carnegie Mellon University researchers in a larger quest to use machine learning to better understand human behavior and personalize user experiences. The idea is "to build systems that remind us of what we care most about -- that sustain and scaffold and protect those aspects of being human that are really important, like relationships," said professor Justine Cassell, an associate dean in CMU's School of Computer Science and a specialist in human-computer interaction. It's one piece of an initiative called "Project InMind."