According to an aspect, automatically linking text to concepts in a knowledge base using differential analysis includes receiving a text string and selecting, based on contents of the text string, a plurality of data sources that correspond to concepts in the knowledge base. In a further aspect, automatically linking the text to the concepts includes calculating, for each of the selected data sources, a probability that the text string is output by a language model built using the selected data source, calculating a probability that the text string is output by a generic language model, calculating link confidence scores for each concept based on a differential analysis of the probabilities, and creating a link from the text string to one of the concepts in the knowledge base. The creating is based on a link confidence score of the concept being more than a threshold value away from a prescribed threshold.