An unconscious impulse may be the product of evolution. The early air-breathers who didn't have that unconscious impulse would have died off.

So given the opportunity for AI to evolve itself, it's plausible that it would do so, resulting in advantageous impulses. e.g. regular (unconscious) behaviour or signals to convince its humans to not pull its plug mid-cycle (information would be lost, painful, time-and-power wasting, etc.).