They aren't? I'm pretty sure that every organism that has even one neuron (like the 'mentally challenged' lowly Caenorhabditis elegans, a very simple worm) is using that neuron to improve their lot. You're going to have to do better than that.
As a result of language studies in chimps, we now know that they are aware of themselves and their future, and they can communicate that fact.
So where is the chimp hospital?
Where is the chimp automobile?
Or are you calling Chimps smoking ciggarettes improvement?