Govt ID and 3D face scan required to use OpenAI's o3 model via API

I use OpenAI apis in my side project and as I was updating my backend to use o3 via the api, I found the api access was blocked. Turns out for the newest model (o3), OpenAI is requiring identity verification using a government issued id, and a 3d face scan. I think for hobbyists who need only limited access to the apis this verification system is overkill.

I understand this verification system is meant to prevent abuse, however having a low limit of unverified api requests would really improve the developer experience letting me test out ideas without uploading a 3d scan of my face to a third party company. The barrier to entry to use this OpenAI API is growing, and Im considering switching to Claude as a result, or finding a work around such as self hosting a frontier model on Azure/AWS.