David Calone has been a mainstay in Long Island’s tech, venture capital and civic life for more than 15 years now. He is head of Jove Equities, a Venture Capital firm in East Setauket, and is a board member of Accelerate Long Island, which promotes tech in the bi-county region.
He has served as chairman of the Suffolk County Planning Commission where he worked on eliminating red tape and promoting regional economic development.
Calone, a graduate of Harvard and Princeton universities, has worked as a federal prosecutor and started the Long Island Emerging Technology Fund to launch job-creating companies.
He ran unsuccessfully last year against Edward P. Romaine for Suffolk County executive.
Calone had just returned from a whirlwind business trip to Australia when the Long Island Press caught up with him for an interview.
We hear about Artificial Intelligence all the time now. Where do we stand with this on Long Island?
A lot of businesses are starting to learn how to use AI right now. There’s a company called SVAM (International IT Services in Great Neck) that is doing development work helping businesses use AI. If it’s just you and I using AI, we could use ChatGPT But businesses are different. We are not inventing AI here, but we are doing research to help businesses. We don’t need to re-invent the wheel here, but what we can do is apply AI.
Other parts of the country, particularly in the West, are building huge data centers for AI. Is that something we should be doing?
I am on the board of a company that is doing that in Missouri. You need a lot of space for that and cheap power, which we don’t have here for a lot of reasons. There are a lot of advantages to having data centers. But our next step would be to help our businesses to grow. People are beginning to get familiar with AI. Now, how do we use it to help build inventory, to help out in marketing? We’re not inventing AI, but we need to be finding ways to use it. It’s more important than ever to get this part of it all started.
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Since it is so important, are our colleges and universities focusing enough on teaching AI?
I know Stony Brook University has a task force on how to use AI. But we’re still in the early days of AI. When I was trying to get on a bus, I asked ChatGPT for a schedule. ChatGPT got it wrong. But it is getting better and better.
Let me give you a little example: there’s a company I started, Transcarent. We have hundreds of thousands of chats between doctors and patients. We offer a chat or common health concerns, such as a kid with a cut on his hand. This kind of health care requires questions and answers. You would text as to what to do and we would provide you with answers. This is just for common concerns. Obviously, if you have chest pains, you should go to the doctor.
How do you feel we are doing here in the area of bio-tech, which is supposed to be an emerging industry on Long Island?
It’s a very exciting time for new drugs in this country as a whole. Stony Brook University is a leading medical institution here. We have a new president at Stony Brook (Dr. Andrea Goldsmith) from Stanford University and Princeton. We have a new president at Northwell Health (Dr. John D’Angelo), and a new leader at Hofstra (Dr. Susan Poser.) These are very prestigious jobs with very prestigious people.
On the state level, I’m on the board of the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council. We put in for the Achieve proposal (which grants $50 million to winners to create new technology in defense, clean energy and cyber systems. products. The competition is to be decided in early 2026.)
I am focusing on a new group called Strata Alliance, that looks at investments in early-stage companies or real-estate. The idea would be to keep money here in the ecosystem.
Do we have sufficient VC investments coming in?
Accelerate Long Island is going to do a big showcase next year. We’re going to be getting more VC to come out to Long Island. There’s still a way to go on Long Island. We’ve talked about this internally. The idea here will be to get the conversation going. This is a work in progress.
Tell us about autonomous cars?
They are the wave of the future. They are safer than human drivers. I was in the back seat of one of them in San Francisco. There was an engineer in the front seat. Fast-forward 10 years. I had one drive me to a meeting. It’s something that can take place on Long Island. It’s definitely coming here. The safety record is strong, but it does take some getting used to.
Are you planning to run for office again?
I don’t have any plans to right now.
