These drones were not self organizing. They were programmed.If the machine can alter its own programming based on inputs, it is considered AI. Whether you exalt them or not is up to you.
A drone that could teach itself to fly would be impressive. Navigating a forest is a testing technique, kind of like a standardized dataset. "Optic flow" has been well studied in birds, we understand the complete physiology. We even understand the social signals that keep a flock of birds flying in (loose) formation. All this is programmed into each drone, which then autonomously executes it's program without any intelligence whatsoever