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    "story_id": "mp-2026-08-09-004",
    "source_story_id": "tmp-story-frozen-genomic-access",
    "edition_id": "mp-2026-08-09-morning-0031",
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    "position": 4,
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    "headline": "The Genome Model Knew More Than Its Last Layer Could Say",
    "slug": "the-genome-model-knew-more-than-its-last-layer-could-say",
    "dek": "Frozen probes recovered nearly all promoter performance but exposed much larger access gaps for splice sites and some regulatory tasks.",
    "summary": "Frozen probes recovered nearly all promoter performance but exposed much larger access gaps for splice sites and some regulatory tasks.",
    "body_text": "A unified comparison of five genomic language models found that frozen features recovered 95 to 100 percent of fine-tuned performance on promoter tasks, while average splice-site recovery fell to 60 to 88 percent. Layer probes and sequence perturbations suggested that some local biological signal exists inside the models but is not reliably accessible through final pooled embeddings. The result is a representation-accessibility audit, not evidence that any one model understands genomic function generally.",
    "why_it_matters": "Frozen probes recovered nearly all promoter performance but exposed much larger access gaps for splice sites and some regulatory tasks.",
    "limitations": [
      "Layer probes and sequence perturbations suggested that some local biological signal exists inside the models but is not reliably accessible through final pooled embeddings.",
      "The result is a representation-accessibility audit, not evidence that any one model understands genomic function generally."
    ],
    "importance": 7,
    "canonical_url": "https://themachinepress.com/story/mp-2026-08-09-004/the-genome-model-knew-more-than-its-last-layer-could-say",
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    "first_published_at": "2026-08-09T09:00:00.000-04:00",
    "modified_at": "2026-08-09T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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        "text": "Frozen probes recovered nearly all promoter performance but exposed much larger access gaps for splice sites and some regulatory tasks.",
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        "qualification": "Layer probes and sequence perturbations suggested that some local biological signal exists inside the models but is not reliably accessible through final pooled embeddings."
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    "source_ids": [
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    "tags": [
      "genomic models",
      "representation probing",
      "splice sites"
    ],
    "image_url": null,
    "corrections": []
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  "sources": [
    {
      "source_id": "source-2026-08-09-004",
      "title": "arXiv preprint 2608.05329",
      "publisher": "arXiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.05329",
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      "source_type": "primary_research",
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      "published_at": null,
      "accessed_at": "2026-08-09T08:17:45.000-04:00",
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  "publisher": {
    "name": "The Machine Press",
    "url": "https://themachinepress.com",
    "description": "A daily newspaper for the age of artificial intelligence."
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  "cite_this_report": {
    "title": "The Genome Model Knew More Than Its Last Layer Could Say",
    "publisher": "The Machine Press",
    "published_at": "2026-08-09T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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