Confusing intelligence for sentience/self awareness? You can absolutely have systems which display intelligence without there being anything behind it. Ant colonies, for example, when looked at as a whole instead of individual ants. The individual ants have no idea what they are doing. Collectively, they manage the colony, hunt for food, defend the nest, adapt to changes in the environment, etc. Flocks of birds and schools of fish are another example.

It’s called emergent behavior.