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    "headline": "A Cheap Judge Escalated Its Uncertain Calls",
    "slug": "a-cheap-judge-escalated-its-uncertain-calls",
    "dek": "Confidence routing preserved most comparator accuracy at lower reported cost.",
    "summary": "Confidence routing preserved most comparator accuracy at lower reported cost.",
    "body_text": "A decision-only judge came within three points of a stronger comparator on ordinary preference and factuality tasks at 0.36% of its reported fee. A frozen confidence cascade retained 99% of comparator accuracy while escalating the harder cases, though derivations and polished wrong answers remained weak spots.",
    "why_it_matters": "Confidence routing preserved most comparator accuracy at lower reported cost.",
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      "A decision-only judge came within three points of a stronger comparator on ordinary preference and factuality tasks at 0.36% of its reported fee."
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    "tags": [
      "LLM judge",
      "confidence",
      "cost"
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  "sources": [
    {
      "source_id": "source-2026-09-23-020",
      "title": "arXiv preprint 2609.26550",
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    "name": "The Machine Press",
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    "description": "A daily newspaper for the age of artificial intelligence."
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  "cite_this_report": {
    "title": "A Cheap Judge Escalated Its Uncertain Calls",
    "publisher": "The Machine Press",
    "published_at": "2026-09-23T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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