I anthropomorphize the heck out of my vacuuming robot so this doesn't surprise me. When it gets entangled in cables or stuck in odd places, I verbally comfort it.

I'm a programmer. I know it's just a machine. It still makes me feel good to show it some empathy. If I cuss at Google Home for not understanding what I tell it, I might as well express positive emotions too. I find that the negativity otherwise spills over to interactions with humans and animals.