It's an AI model file, part of an upcoming local AI API. It can be very useful for on-device AI though, stuff like parsing and analyzing text from an image such as a receipt of groceries, which is actually an app I'm making currently, so it helps if everyone has such a model.

It would be absolutely lovely if Google asked users to opt-in rather than force a large file download on them.

I’m going to attribute this to stupidity instead of malice, but it’s pretty much the height of SV arrogance to assume that unannounced multi-GB files are okay for any purpose, let alone generative AI that the user hasn’t opted into.

Some people still have shitty internet and/or bandwidth caps.