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The judge liked it better without the citations · Antithetical Labs

AnnouncementResearchSep 2, 2026

Antithetical Labs reports that removing all citations from research memos shifted an LLM judge's score by only +0.17, below the judge's 0.27 run-to-run noise. In an experiment with 80 model-written memos and 90 seeded defects, a typed ontology of ten relation checks caught both citation defects at 100%, while the judge missed them. The judge penalized defects that read badly (a thesis-contradicting trade cost 3.7 points) but not those making research untrustworthy.

Receipt № 17081 source · awaiting confirmation ◐

Evidence

1source· awaiting independent confirmation

No score is assigned. Sources and their independence are shown in the citation chain below.

Citation chain · 1 source

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