A legacy and universal variant of "have to," "need to," "has to," etc. that is especially overused by scientists, politicians, tech companies, and others.
A phrase normally used when an outsider tells you somethingcrazy that just happened but in actual fact it is a common occurrence in your strange fucked up life and just like any other day.
Phil - "Holy crap! Geoff just tripled himself in the middle of the parking lot!"