No, they don't know whether nanobes are living organisms or not. The problem is, there's no consensus definition of 'life' yet; lots of wrangling over that.

Have you heard about the plasma constructs that have been seen? (Plasma is the fourth state of matter: solid, gas, liquid, plasma.) Well, anyway, there are plasma constructs that are apparently able to replicate, and they form helical structures not dissimilar to the helixes in DNA. (Seems like the helix is rather universal.) They haven't said that these plasma constructs are 'life', but they haven't ruled it out either, because they do exhibit characteristics we associate with life.

Now, if those *are* alive, that's very interesting, because of the four possible states of matter, plasma is, by far, the most common, much more common than solids, liquids and gases put together. So, it could be that plasma-based life is the most common form of life in the universe. Such life would have very little in common with us though; even if it eventually evolves into something intelligent, (if it hasn't already), we'd have nothing they want, and they'd have nothing we want. Maybe information-trading, but that'd be about it.