Last week, Geng Shuai showed the world his latest creation — an upside down hair-washing machine. Geng Shuai is a 31-year-old man from Baoding, Hebei province. He has become famous for his strange but joyful machines. He invented（发明）a barbecue football table and an earthquake — proof noodle bowl.

Every country has its inventors. But China — which gave the world famous type printing gunpowder and the compass — has many tinkerers who display the kind of outsize ambition（抱负、野心）that has helped the country become a great country in the world.

Geng may now be the best-known among them — a new kind of social media star who is famous because of his useless inventions. His other inventions include a 66-cm-long comb made of iron, and a toilet built into a scooter（踏板车）that you can use when driving the scooter.

In China, the most popular live streams are not of live events or the gifts from friends, but shows held by strangers. Geng tries to come up with a new invention every week and to make live streams twice a week. He makes about $150 every time he makes a live stream.

Geng has become famous because of China’s quick development. Millions of people move to cities from the countryside. They work long days, so they want to watch something different and exciting.

Inventions make the world better, smarter and a little more fun.

	The folding bike helmet(头盔) People hate to wear a helmet because it's thick and heavy. Morpher is a bike helmet made from plastics. It is just as strong as the traditional ones, but flexible(灵活的)enough to fold almost totally flat. Also it is much easier to carry.
	Shoes that tie themselves After we see the movie Back to the Future, almost everyone wants a pair of self­tying shoes. Now, thanks to Nike, the shoe dream comes true. When you press a button, the shoes can tie themselves.
	The smart alarm clock—Hello Sense An alarm clock, called Hello Sense, can improve your sleep. It can control the temperature, light and even air quality in your bedroom to help you have a perfect sleep environment. And it can record your sleep cycles.
	Sweet potatoes that could save lives The lack(缺 乏)of vitamin A can cause blindness and many other illnesses for illnesses. In sub­Saharan Africa, plant experts are helping them grow a kind of new sweet potatoes. These potatoes can help them fight against some illnesses.

Imagine you are thinking about entering a senior high school, but have questions. So you go to the school's website to find answers. A message appears on your computer and says, "How can I help?" You are not communicating with a human being, but a chatbot. It is using artificial intelligence (AI) to communicate with you. This might sound strange, but in recent years, chatbots have become an usual tool for banks and large companies around the world.

Having workers answer people's questions and complaints can be expensive. And workers canonly work several hours a day, making customers wait longer for a response (答复). So not only companies, but more schools have also begun using chatbot technology, says Keith Rajecki. He is with Oracle Higher Education, a computer software company that serves these institutions.

Rajecki notes that reducing costs and response time is one of the main reasons why schools and companies are turning to this technology. However, the purpose of many schools is to find ways to better serve students, since students are used to communicating online through Facebook or WeChat, says Rajecki.

Now Oracle is offering many schools a chatbot which can do everything from helping students register (注册) for classes to helping them ask for a few days off. Oracle is not the only company working on chatbot technology. Businesses like AdmitHub and Ivy.ai are involved in similar efforts.

Western Governors University, or WGU, also received a $750,000 award to experiment with a new kind of chatbot. "We're not trying to create a bot that answers simple questions," said Jason Leven, the director of WGU Labs. "We're trying to create a chatbot that can help decision making for students."

Ian Jacobs is with the market research company Forrester. He suggests that technology like chatbots can work well if it is able to do what users ask of it. Jacobs says the problem will appear when cost cutting becomes an important reason for using the technology. This means schools and companies are more likely to try using chatbots for things they are not yet able to do, such as communicating in the way humans do. For one thing, there are hundreds of ways to word even simple requests. For another, chatbots aren't able to deal with emotions (感情). They can't understand how humans feel, not to speak of comforting (安慰) them.