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    "story_id": "mp-2026-08-09-013",
    "source_story_id": "tmp-story-graphrag-overcitation",
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    "headline": "The Citation Graph Remembered Too Much",
    "slug": "the-citation-graph-remembered-too-much",
    "dek": "GraphRAG over-cited across corpora, while the damage to answer faithfulness depended on what those extra passages contained.",
    "summary": "GraphRAG over-cited across corpora, while the damage to answer faithfulness depended on what those extra passages contained.",
    "body_text": "Across 4,440 main experiments, 600 cross-corpus runs and 1,200 paired judgments, GraphRAG returned 11 to 15 source IDs per answer with low citation precision in each tested configuration. Faithfulness fell across hops in a typed aviation-requirements corpus but rose on Wikipedia chains because extra passages were still topically useful; even the same judge changed verdicts often when retrieval state changed. The authors argue that architecture claims need tests across embedders, corpora and judges.",
    "why_it_matters": "GraphRAG over-cited across corpora, while the damage to answer faithfulness depended on what those extra passages contained.",
    "limitations": [],
    "importance": 8,
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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": "GraphRAG over-cited across corpora, while the damage to answer faithfulness depended on what those extra passages contained.",
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    "source_ids": [
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    "tags": [
      "RAG",
      "citations",
      "evaluation"
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    "image_url": "https://themachinepress.com/issues/2026-08-09/graphrag-brain-file-image.webp",
    "corrections": []
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  "sources": [
    {
      "source_id": "source-2026-08-09-013",
      "title": "arXiv preprint 2608.05153",
      "publisher": "arXiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.05153",
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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 Citation Graph Remembered Too Much",
    "publisher": "The Machine Press",
    "published_at": "2026-08-09T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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