Literally yes. Thermostat (yes, the thing that turns your heater on if temperature is lower than XX) is considered an inteligent agent in the field of artifical inteligence.

The fact that you have a bunch of techbros who have no idea about what the field is about and are hyping the words because they sound cool changes nothing about it being a regular established academic field.

Goombas have ai, so, yes.

Just break it down logically,

Would you consider something capable of playing minesweeper intelligent? (ie do you think it has a higher level of understanding than pure random chance?)

Do you consider software running on a manufactured silicon chip natural or artificial?