[dj-wonk]

However you would prefer the term be defined and used, for decades, people have used the term "artificial life" to include cellular automata.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_life

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_artificial_life

[ianai]

Further, the study of how life arises has to start somewhere very simple, like drastically simple/simplified 2D rule systems.